1sentence: A Mineral Town Collection
by Rhianwen
Summary: Every romance has a story, and every story is made up of moments. Very much like 1sentence: A Magical Melodies Collection, but with the boys and girls of Mineral Town. Chapter 11: Gotz and Elli.
1. DoctorElli Alpha theme set

1sentence: A Mineral Town Collection

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Summary: Every romance has a story, and every story is made up of moments. Very much like 1sentence: A Magical Melodies Collection, but with the boys and girls of Mineral Town. For now, most are cross-posted from the 1sentence livejournal community, but new ones will follow. :)

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Doctor/Elli - Alpha Set

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#01 – Comfort

He can't help but smile whenever he sees her teddy bear collection, arranged neatly on the shelf in her bedroom, and imagines her snuggling down amid blankets and pillows, hugging one of her cuddly little toys blissfully to her cheek.

#02 – Kiss

She thinks she might come to like the taste of red wine, if she can taste it on him, his lips and tongue gently teasing and meltingly sweet on hers.

#03 – Soft

Elli never slams doors when she's angry; when he remembers a childhood filled with bitter arguments between two parents who assumed their tiny son long since asleep, he thinks he couldn't have asked for a better housemate.

#04 – Pain

After an entire day enduring a _moody female_, Tim leads his usually sweet-natured assistant upstairs without a word and rubs gentle circles over her abdomen until she's purring and half asleep; when she asks drowsily how he knew it was _that time of the month_, he just smiles.

#05 – Potatoes

"Doctor, I don't understand why you hate French fries so much; I thought you were always encouraging people to eat _more_ vegetables."

#06 – Rain

The only thing she likes more than being out in the rain, wandering the streets until her hair and clothes are plastered to her skin, is his face when she whirls back into the Clinic, dripping wet and laughing.

#07 – Chocolate

Sometimes he still catches her sneaking bits of chocolate at her desk, but when she flashes that _smile_ at him, holds the box out, asks sweetly if he'd like some, he can't bring himself to scold her, and somehow finds himself breaking off a piece.

#08 – Happiness

As an adolescent who was going to _change the world_, he assumed _happiness_ synonymous with _victory_; as she senses him watching her work and looks up with a warm smile, he wonders if it isn't closer to _contentment_.

#09 – Telephone

When they got the telephone installed at the clinic for the emergency line, he sat her down and explained, very slowly and carefully, how to work it – but drat it, he was so entirely _sweet_ about it that she couldn't even be angry!

#10 – Ears

She is well acquainted with the old superstition that, when your ears are ringing, it means someone is talking about you, and she wonders why _hers_ always start ringing on rainy Wednesday mornings when he goes to see Carter.

#11 – Name

He doesn't mind that she and Ellen and Carter are the only ones in town who ever use his real name, although sometimes he wishes _she_ would do it _more_.

#12 – Sensual

She loves his eyes, dark and contrasting sharply with skin just on the darker side of _pale_; loves his voice, low and quiet and refined; loves the clean scent of his soap mixed with the sweetbitter herbal clinging to him almost constantly; loves the feel of his hand resting gently on her shoulder, or brushing the hair out of her eyes, or smoothing down a bandage after the shots that she hates almost as much as Stu does; wonders if it makes her a bit sick that thinking about the taste of his skin beneath her lips can send her scurrying for a cold shower in the middle of the day.

#13 – Death

He knows that she has seen a lot of death for someone so young and naïve and soft-hearted, and that's why he almost regrets exposing her to more – he knows the effect it has had on him, and he doesn't want that for her, wants her to stay sweet and cheerful and hopeful.

#14 – Sex

The first time, it is a week before the wedding, after the temptation of privacy to do as they like and nothing between them but a paper-thin wall becomes overwhelming; and it was worth waiting years for, this gentle, hesitant, nearly reverent touch that she never expected from him, and it would have been worth waiting seven more days, but she's still glad they did.

#15 – Touch

"It isn't fair," she announces sleepily, brushing her hand over his cheek and resting hers on his shoulder, "that your skin is softer than mine."

#16 – Weakness

She remembers the day that she stopped being uncomfortable and afraid in his presence and started to actually _like_ him; when she turned away to give the proud parents some privacy with their newborn child, she thought she might have seen a glimmer of moisture in his eyes as he watched the young family with a wistful smile.

#17 – Tears

If she thought it was hard to see him angry, it was nothing compared to the time she saw him cry.

#18 – Speed

Their wedding trip takes them to a faraway city, and when he lets her drive the gleaming black brand-new rental car back to the hotel after dinner – out of necessity; it's hard to exercise moderation when experiencing great joy or great despair – he doesn't know whether to be amused or terrified that his prim, demure Elli is a closet speed-demon.

#19 – Wind

Furious and blushing, she scrambles to smooth her skirts back down again, and, delicately averting his eyes, he laughs.

#20 – Freedom

He told her once that a life devoid of all obligation is empty and devoid of meaning, and she started to argue; then she thought of Stu and Grandma – and him – and didn't, but gave the rambunctious little boy and the sweet, frail old woman extra-big hugs next visit.

#21 – Life

It's difficult, but he doesn't laugh when this owl-eyed, shaggy-haired scrap that he calls his _nurse_ tells him, solemn and reverent and hesitant, that she thinks it's amazing and noble that he dedicates his life to fighting for other people's; instead, he tells her coolly that she's still very young, and she'll learn eventually to stop romanticizing everything.

#22 – Jealousy

It was a long time before he felt comfortable enough to joke with her and laugh when she blushed at his teasing, and somehow it rubs him the wrong way to hear her sparkling laugh mingle with that new farmer's minutes after they first met.

#23 – Hands

When she offers in adorable and adoring concern to massage an ankle that he twisted while out hiking, and the feel of those tiny, soft, surprisingly strong hands of hers working away make him wonder ashamedly what other muscles he could pull, he thinks resignedly that he might never get used to being _allowed_ to think these things.

#24 – Taste

There are very, very few men that she would ever ask for _fashion_ advice; he just happens to be all of them.

#25 – Devotion

From _fondness_, it was a small step to _devotion_, not only to the job that is gradually becoming her life, but to the man who chose to trust her with it.

#26 – Forever

Neither of them is the sort that likes to _keep their options open_; now that they're together, they'll stay that way.

#27 – Blood

He remembers the day that she _really_ earned his trust and respect; if she could see her own _baby brother_ lying unconscious in the middle of Rose Square, trampled by a runaway horse and bleeding badly, and maintain a cool head and quick reflexes, she could handle a lot more than he had been trusting to her.

#28 – Sickness

Sometimes, when she gets the flu and can't sleep for coughing and aching and fever, he'll sit up with her, talking to her to keep her mind off of it, no matter how hard she tries to get him back to bed.

#29 – Melody

He doesn't realize, until after he has asked her to stop singing while she works because it distracts him, how much he likes it.

#30 – Star

He teased her when he caught her wishing on a star, but after she stuck her tongue out at him and left in a huff, he turned back to the window and made a wish of his own.

#31 – Home

The first time she absently referred to the clinic as _home_, he was irrationally thrilled and a little envious, until he realized with a start that it had become home to him, too.

#32 – Confusion

Once, in the delirium of fever, he called her by a different girl's name, but it was okay, because he asked her piteously, a rare slip of dignity, to go find Elli.

#33 – Fear

It was a long time before she found the courage to ask herself what might follow from _devotion_.

#34 – Lightning/Thunder

He's almost able to forget that he thinks of her as more than a child when she creeps hesitantly into his room and admits, face buried in his shoulder, that she's afraid of the storm.

#35 – Bonds

When he overhears his sweet-natured little seventeen-year old nurse happily turn down a party invitation in favour of spending Saturday night studying, he has a flashback to his own teen years, and wonders if they have more in common than he thought; when he spends all evening _distracting_ her by chatting because he's spent the day locked in his own thoughts and misses other people, she wonders it, too.

#36 – Market

"How is it that you haggle better than I do?" he demands as he stalks grumpily after his cheerfully skipping nurse, proud and elated with the wonderful deal she just got him on a particular piece of art he had admired at the yearly art festival of a nearby city.

#37 – Technology

A few times now, he's suggested getting a computer in at the Clinic, just so that she wouldn't have to spend her days buried in hard-copy files; and every time, she wrinkles her nose and reminds him that she's no good with electronics – remember the telephone, after all.

#38 – Gift

"_Please_ open it now?" she entreats, and she helps him pull off the ribbon and wrapping, and ends up opening most of it herself.

#39 – Smile

The first time he saw her smile, sweet and beaming and a little nervous, he thought, _they have given me a pretty little _child_ for an assistant_; since then, he has come to know better.

#40 – Innocence

When he catches her climbing out of the Hot Spa, dripping wet and demanding angrily who's run off with her towel, she wonders, baffled, why he's staring at her like that.

#41 – Completion

He's been giving her those looks all evening, but she's not going to bed until she finishes her jigsaw puzzle.

#42 – Clouds

She almost hates to interrupt him when she follows him secretly to Mother's Hill with a surprise picnic, and finds him staring up at the sky, trying to find fluffy white shapes.

#43 – Sky

In eight years, this is the first time they've been up to Goddess Peak for the Full Moon Festival; by the end of the night, both of them are generally ignoring the full moon to stare, fascinated, at the night sky, dotted with stars, soft and warm as black velvet.

#44 – Heaven

It wasn't quite heaven, laying the tiny infant girl in a crib filled with fluffy yellow blankets and kissing her softly goodnight on the forehead, because even amid the rapture of new motherhood, she could feel a small, subtle shadow stealing across her happiness; she knew by his eyes that something was wrong.

#45 – Hell

It wasn't quite hell, laying the tiny infant girl in a far narrower and colder bed, the beautiful christening gown lovingly made by a proud grandmother a shroud in the end, kissing her softly goodbye on the forehead, because his hands were gently at her shoulders, and she could feel him trembling where his arm touched her back, and she remembered that there were still reasons to go on living.

#46 – Sun

It was very easy for both of them to feel like their lives had ended with their daughter's, but the sun still rises and sets in time, and it's somehow even easier and harder than they thought to continue on, and eventually even feel glad again.

#47 – Moon

And it isn't _so_ very long before they turn to each other for more than comfort, partly because it's time to _try again_ and partly because they just miss each other this way, and the cool, serene moonlight spilling through the window finds them tangled together, kissing and touching and crying out and breathing words of love.

#48 – Waves

The sound of the ocean, associated already in her mind with childhood and splashing in the water, and with the endless summers of her teens and stretching out on a beach blanket to study while Mary, next to her, read fairytales; now associated ever after with the man that she has admired deeply, both from nearby and afar, for years.

#49 – Hair

The first time she saw his hair, her fingers itched to comb it down for him, and she wondered if this _city-boy_ had paid good money to have it look that way; now, she loves it and would be devastated if he figured out how to work a comb.

#50 – Supernova

She's always been glad that they didn't fall instantly and intensely in love, because nothing that burns that bright and that hot lasts for long, and even if that isn't true for everyone, he doesn't bother correcting her, because it's true for _them_, and he's always been glad, too.

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End Notes: O-kay! Why have I decided to post these ones, too? Well, because I really wuv them, and I fully intend to write more. Probably even more for this pairing. All five theme sets, to be exact. Seriously; I'm halfway through the third one at the moment. But don't worry; there'll be other couples, too. I'm a huge fan of all the canon couples (aside from Cliff/Ann, of which I am a moderate fan), and I have about a zillion crack-pairings I want to try out/try out again (Karen/Carter, Zack/Popuri, Elli/Gotz, Ann/Popuri, Karen/Popuri, Elli/Mary, Karen/Mary, Karen/Ann/Mary/Elli/Popuri...hehehe...), and this is a wonderful way to do it. Y'know, get the feel of the pairing before writing a full story. :)

And, since the Magical Melodies ones have been far better received than I expected, I thought maybe folks might enjoy these ones, too. Here's hopin'! XD

Anyway, I've already had this one up on the 1sentence lj community for a fairly longish while, so my apologies if you've already seen it; I'll endeavour to make the next one new. :)


	2. GrayMary Gamma theme set

Gray/Mary - Gamma theme set

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#01 – Ring

The first time they met, she flushed beautifully at his enthusiastic admiration that she could run this whole place by herself, and as he left, Gray, who couldn't make a decision on anything without months of deliberation, thought whimsically that he might like to make his and Mary's wedding bands himself.

#02 – Hero

Gradually, since that grandson of Saibara's started coming every afternoon, Mary has begun to picture the dashing heroes in her novels as redheaded and just a little bit sulky, but with beautiful smiles when they're _not_.

#03 – Memory

Mary knows that Gray has a terrible memory, so she tells herself over and over that she won't be hurt when he forgets her birthday, until she almost trips over a clumsily wrapped present that someone's left on the doorstep of the library despite the snow.

#04 – Box

When she opens the box, she gasps at the beautiful pearl necklace nestled in between layers of tissue paper, but she squeals in open delight at the prettily-decorated hardcover journal, and the scribbled message on the inside of the front cover: "Happy Birthday, Mary; maybe you can use it to write our story."

#05 – Run

Gray likes to go for a run through town early each morning, but when he passes Mary's house and she comes scurrying out to run with him, it usually turns into a _walk_, which turns into a pleasant _stroll_, which turns into a _sit_ on the nearest bench until they're both almost late for work and have to run again to make it on time.

#06 – Hurricane

Despite her alarmed protests, he goes upstairs in the Library before she's had a chance to organize the second floor; and her annoyed pout when he says _it looks like a hurricane's been through here_ turns into a grateful smile when, without a word, he starts alphabetizing and shelving the boxes of books.

#07 – Wings

Mary has always heard _falling in love_ compared to soaring up with the wings of an eagle or a dove, but now that it's happening to her, she feels more like she's floating gently on a soft, warm, comforting sweet-pink cloud.

#08 – Cold

He's kind of glad they both have their birthdays in the winter, because it's nice, celebrating by the light of a roaring fire, in a room as drowsily, headily warm as he knows it is bitterly cold outside.

#09 – Red

Of course Mary is spending the Starry Night Festival with her family; but it is the crowning glory of Gray's day when she comes by Grandpa's shop late that evening to wish them both a happy Starry Night, with a little red velvet cap pulled down over her long dark hair, left uncharacteristically loose around her shoulders.

#10 – Drink

Gray likes wine as much as the next guy, but what he _really_ likes is Mary's cheeks flushed brightly pink and her arms tight around his neck, chin against his shoulder, petite frame curled up in his lap, when they've both had a bit too much.

#11 – Midnight

They had only planned to go for a _short_ walk that evening; but time had slipped away on them, and by the time they caught up again, it was close to midnight and her mother was frantic, close to panic but refraining because Gray was _such_ a nice, responsible boy.

#12 – Temptation

When they realize that they're all alone on Goddess Peak and likely to be for a few hours yet because _no one in their right mind_ gets up this early, they both grow very red, her in the cheeks and him in the ears, and they scramble to make up reasons to head back now, before they do something stupid.

#13 – View

He's never been up to her room before, so he spends a long time at that little west-facing window, thinking, _Wow, what a view_ before she tugs him around gently to kiss her and windows become the last thing on his mind.

#14 – Music

He's glad she plays the organ instead of the flute or the violin, because an organ makes such a good, solid sound – a sound worth listening to.

#15 – Silk

When he tells her in a fit of poetic sentiment that her skin is like silk, she asks with an impish smile if that means she gives him rashes, and he swears he's going to kill whichever of the guys told her about those boxers he got from his mom his last birthday.

#16 – Cover

The whole time he's reading her book – the parts she'll _show_ him, anyway – he's thinking at the back of his mind of the _perfect _picture for the cover; and she exclaims in horror when she finds him sitting by the pond in the middle of winter, numb from three hours in the biting cold, because he didn't want to miss the sunset.

#17 – Promise

She doesn't need him to _promise_ that they'll be together forever; it's good enough that he _told _her so, because Gray doesn't say things that he doesn't mean, and he doesn't change his mind without a really good reason.

#18 – Dream

She doesn't understand why it embarrassed him so much when she found out by accident that he keeps a dream journal.

#19 – Candle

The day after she tells him that the smell of cinnamon inspires her, she finds a whole box full of little red candles on the counter at the Library, their spicy scent filling the air when she lifts the lid.

#20 – Talent

He doesn't understand why it upsets her so much whenever he says that she's _the talented one_, and he's so proud of her that he doesn't even mind being the boring one.

#21 – Silence

Much of the time, they're so quiet together that strangers can't believe they're even _friends_, let alone _almost married_.

#22 – Journey

Over the months, his restlessness has shifted from the need to get as far from Mineral Town as possible and never look back, to the whimsical hope that someday he can take Mary all over the world, because a lot of travel is good for a writer.

#23 – Fire

There's something she loves about watching him work, heating metal over a slow, hot fire, eyes focused and expression intense with concentration, so she's a little sorry that Saibara won't let her watch often, because Gray always seems to hurt himself when she's around.

#24 – Strength

In spite of all the possible clichés about the unshakable strength of metal, he thinks that Mary might be far stronger than him, and he believes it so entirely that he can't bring himself to be mad when Gramps nods gravely and agrees.

#25 – Mask

It was almost a relief the first time they fought, because it meant that Gray was comfortable enough to stop putting his best face forward, and be himself around her.

#26 – Ice

He finally found the courage to ask her tonight, while they were walking by the lake, and he moved to brush the droplets of melted snow from her hair; since he was this close, and the Blue Feather was right there, tucked into his coat, he might as well do it, right?

#27 – Fall

She thinks that _falling in love_ is another silly phrase, but he's not so sure – he kind of feels like a bumbling klutz tripping over his own feet when she's around.

#28 – Forgotten

Gray knows that he was in a bad mood when he left the forge, but when Mary gives him that smile, kind of blushing a little like she does sometimes, he's damned if he can remember why – although, he remembers why he'll never be a poet.

#29 – Dance

"I think a _dance_ might be the wrong word for it," Mary giggles as they snuggle happily into their corner together and sit out yet another song at their own wedding party.

#30 – Body

Mary has always heard that the _man_ is supposed to be obsessed with the things they do in bed, while the woman just puts up with it; but then, they've hardly done anything the right way, she thinks, pulling his clothes joyously aside.

#31 – Sacred

If family bonds are supposed to be _sacred_, Gray wonders, why is it that he gets along way better with Basil and Anna than he ever has with Mom and Dad?

#32 – Farewells

When Mary comes home from a book tour to a crushing hug, sweet slow kisses over her temples, and a gentle protective hand stroking her hair, she thinks that the _hello again_ just might make the _goodbye_ worth it.

#33 – World

Saibara tells his grandson one night that he's going to have to grow up very soon, because an ignorant traveller might as well not even bother, and he still needs to take Mary all over the world.

#34 – Formal

No one will ever be able to convince her that it's inappropriate, or anything other than adorable and wonderful and perfect, when he wears that silly hat with his tuxedo to all those publishers' galas.

#35 – Fever

He knows that she's probably made herself sick staying up until dawn every night with that book, but he also knows that writing is like breathing to her, and he thinks that the doctor and his nurse and wife must have some idea too, because they don't sound more than half-sincere when they warn him not to let Mary get this run-down again.

#36 – Laugh

Most authors puff themselves up with pride when they manage to make a reader cry; when she found Gray doubled over with laughter over a light-hearted little story she'd been working on, she wondered if she could actually _feel_ her head swelling.

#37 – Lies

She's always been glad that Gray is practically genetically incapable of lying; it's hard enough, getting him to share his thoughts and feelings without having to worry if they were genuine or not.

#38 – Forever

This must be what happiness is, Gray thinks, wrapping a protective arm around his wife, spent and trembling with exhaustion, and running one finger very lightly over his tiny son's cheek; the feeling even if this lasted _forever_, it might not be long enough.

#39 – Overwhelmed

Even though they're an _old married couple_ by now – they've just celebrated their third wedding anniversary, after all – they always make sure to set a little bit of time aside for just them, because it's too easy to get so caught up in the _everything_ they have to do that they forget to just be in love.

#40 – Whisper

One crazy, secret night, they snuck away from a party in full swing, into an empty room – mercifully, with a door lock – and let their clothes fall to the floor and their hands and lips roam, and laughed very quietly so that no one would hear, far more elated by the possibility than she thinks uncomfortably that they _should_ have been.

#41 – Wait

She's usually too busy throughout most of the day to be lonely for him, but there's something inside her head that just _tells_ her when there's only half an hour left before he gets home, and _that's_ when she starts checking the clock every few minutes.

#42 – Talk

When she finds three generations of blacksmiths – for, at three years old, Daly is already adamant that he's gonna be one someday, too, y'know – crowded around the television, she asks if the movie's any good; when she receives three nearly identical wordless shrugs in reply, she collapses in a fit of laughter until Gray and Saibara insist worriedly that she take a rest and watch with them for a while.

#43 – Search

They've spent the entire _afternoon_ looking for his hat, and she hasn't one suggested that things might be easier to find if he puts them where they belong – which makes him reflect complacently that he's married _the perfect woman_.

#44 – Hope

Still, she can't help but hope that he'll learn how to put things where they belong _eventually_.

#45 – Eclipse

Gray is furious when Mary's newest novel, subtly sweet and deeply intelligent, is overshadowed in the eyes of publishers and public alike by what he scathingly calls _more of the same, and all of it's crap_; when Mary looks from her husband, scowling on her behalf, to her son, asking with wide confused eyes what made Mommy so sad, she somehow can't be so disappointed that she won't be leaving them for another round of negotiations.

#46 – Gravity

They've both learned a lot in that library; Mary learned for the first time what it felt like to think more about _a special someone _than about the books surrounding her, and Gray learned anew the concept of gravity when he walked into one of the shelves because he was too busy watching the dark-haired librarian at the counter, and shouted in pain and annoyance when half a dozen books bounced, one by one, off his head.

#47 – Highway

On the night before they leave on a trip, just the three of them, Gray recalls aloud that he's heard Gramps's old _life is a study_ speech hundreds of times, and wonders if he has one for _life is like a highway stretching off into the distance_; Mary swats him and tells him to be nice, but laughs anyway.

#48 – Unknown

When Mary asks timidly one day if Saibara is feeling okay, and is he trying to take on more work to give his grandfather a rest, it _really _occurs to Gray for the first time that Gramps won't be around forever, and somehow, he doesn't even want to _think_ about what Mineral Town will be like without him.

#49 – Lock

Gray's told Mary a few times that if she ever wants to move to somewhere more convenient for an author, he doesn't mind leaving Mineral Town for the sake of her career, but Mary's sweet refusal is always the same: she doesn't want to leave her parents, or his grandfather, and anyway, it's kind of _nice_, living where you don't have to lock your door at night because you know everyone and trust them all.

#50 – Breathe

They started taking Daly up to Goddess Peak this year, and even at eight years old, he loves it as much as his parents, because _it's easier to breathe all the way up here than it is in town, isn't it, Dad?_

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End Notes: Hi:)


	3. KaiRick Epsilon theme set

Kai/Rick - Epsilon theme set

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#01 – Motion

Kai can never stay in the same place for more than a season at a time before restlessness drives him on; Rick can never decide if it's envy or pity or grudging admiration or disgust that he has for the guy.

#02 – Cool

Rick might be a jerk, but part of Kai wishes he had someone watching out for him like that.

#03 – Young

When Popuri bemoans to her mother that her brother and her _good friend_ are always at each other's throats, Lillia only laughs; they're _boys_ yet, sweetie, they'll fight it out of their systems eventually and be fast friends forever afterwards – although, _when_ is anybody's guess.

#04 – Last

Rick has tried, again and again, to warn his sister that _it won't last_, because it _never_ lasts with a guy like that, because he likes _women_ too much to commit to _one_ woman; Popuri has never thought to try to explain to Rick that she doesn't _care_ if it lasts, because for now, it's lots of fun to spend time with Kai, and that's what summer should be about.

#05 – Wrong

_Logically_, Kai knows that they're both to blame for this ongoing feud, but Rick just gets his back up and he always finds himself saying things to make it worse; Rick knows no such thing, because he has no use for slackers who waste their time and everyone else's by flirting with anything wearing a dress.

#06 – Gentle

Even though he's the one who caused it, shoving Kai sharply back to stumble and hit his head on the edge of the bench, Rick panics, kneeling first to make sure the other boy is still breathing before racing off for Zack's help; Kai, who is not unconscious, only dazed, is surprised by the gentleness in the trembling fingers searching out a pulse.

#07 – One

Kai is the only person that Rick has ever _hated_; he's also the only person that Rick thinks about every day, outside of his family.

#08 – Thousand

Trust Kai, Rick once said scornfully, to be obsessively fond of the most expensive crop you can grow – you only get two for a thousand; Yeah, Kai snorted when he got word of it, because he could buy two thirds of a chicken for that price!

#09 – King

When Rick angrily orders Kai, who has just slid onto the barstool next to his, to go away, Kai only smirks and asks, _who died and made YOU King of Mineral Town?_

#10 – Learn

Whenever Karen tells Rick bluntly that he should learn to get along with Kai because he's upsetting his sister, Rick groans and asks Karen why she couldn't just tell him to learn to breathe underwater – it would be easier.

#11 – Blur

This time, when Rick comes to the beach to yell at him, Kai grabs the other boy's glasses in a swift and completely unexpected motion, and Rick can't figure out why he doesn't hate this laughing darkpurple blur the way he hates Kai.

#12 – Wait

When Kai came around the Poultry Farm to say good-bye to Popuri and Lillia before he left this year, he said it to Rick, too, and now Rick will have to wait until next summer to find out why.

#13 – Change

But a year of worrying and wondering when he has time doesn't stop Rick's skin from crawling with annoyance when Kai shows up again, flirting with every woman in sight, even Stu and Elli's grandma, because sometimes things change, but most of the time they don't.

#14 – Command

Still, he's learned _something_ from watching that irresponsible idiot put the moves on every girl in town, so this year, when he finds Popuri hanging around the beach when she's got work to do, he asks _nicely_ if she'll come back home and help him; for his trouble, he gets Popuri fretting that he's sick, and Kai anxiously advising him to go _sleep it off_.

#15 – Hold

Somewhere between lunging furiously at Kai and sprawling together to the sand, Rick's glasses get knocked away, and when his _lifelong enemy_ turns into that darkpurple blur again, he feels his anger evaporating, a death-grapple turns into rough-housing, and he finds himself laughing as Kai catches him in a surprisingly skilful wrestling hold.

#16 – Need

"The fact is," Karen tells him after her third drink of the evening, swaying unsteadily on her barstool, "you _need_ each other, because having a rival makes you want to improve yourself."

#17 – Vision

Rick used to have a daydream, in which Kai would hastily leave Mineral Town amid the cheers of the townsfolk after promising never to come back; for some reason, he doesn't think about it anymore.

#18 – Attention

"Geez, Rick," Kai snorts when he catches the other boy hanging about the Beach Café, watching him, "if you paid half as much attention to Karen as you do to me, she'd be the luckiest girl in the world."

#19 – Soul

One night, Kai overhears Rick declare no more loudly than someone with four beers in him has any right to be, that there's no such thing as an afterlife, that when we're dead, that's the end of us; and he starts to understand why Rick can't accept his father's decision to spend his life looking for Lillia's cure – if they're both going to die someday anyway, they should spend all the time they have with the people they love.

#20 – Picture

Rick can't understand why Kai still has that photo of the two of them and Popuri and Karen two summers ago, when Lillia and Sasha took at least a half dozen that day with only the girls, and only him and Karen, and only Kai and Popuri; Kai can't understand why Rick thinks it's strange.

#21 – Fool

Kai is nearly ready to admit that he's been a bigger jerk by spurring this conflict on every summer _just for fun_, than Rick is by trying, genuinely if misguidedly, to look out for his baby sister.

#22 – Mad

But just because _he's_ been the bigger jerk doesn't mean that _Rick_ hasn't acted like a nutcase.

#23 – Child

"You know, you're not _kids_ anymore," Doug tells Kai disapprovingly one night after Rick has left in a huff – and taken his generous tips with him – because the dark-haired boy wouldn't quit goading him.

#24 – Now

Rick doesn't quite know why, when Kai showed up at the Poultry Farm one Sunday afternoon to see Popuri, he took a quick glance and then went about _ignoring_ the intruder, but he thinks it might be the same reason that he just left instead of starting a fight at Doug's Place last night.

#25 – Shadow

Tonight, it's Kai's turn to get drunk, and Rick listens, terribly uncomfortable and touched with sympathy, to the story of a young man leaving home to get out of his big brother's shadow because no one ever took the time to notice him under there.

#26 – Goodbye

"Have fun with your aimless wandering this year, you lazy troublemaker," Rick grumbles good-naturedly when Kai stops in at the Poultry Farm to say another goodbye.

#27 – Hide

"Sure thing; you have fun beating the guys away from Popuri with a nail-bat," Kai rejoins before ducking quickly under a table, and it's just another reflection of how things have changed this summer when Rick's half-grudging chuckle joins Popuri's trilling giggle and Lillia's soft, gentle laugh.

#28 – Fortune

Really, it's just _the way the world works_, that Rick watches enviously as Kai leaves town without a second thought to anyone or anything, while Kai peeks over his shoulder at Rick and Popuri supporting Lillia as they all wave goodbye from the farm gate, the closeness and warm easy love between them clear to any onlooker – each boy thinking, _that lucky bastard_.

#29 – Safe

Maybe that's part of why Kai comes back to Mineral Town every summer – there are things like that, that never change no matter what else in his life might, and there's something nice about that that.

#30 – Ghost

One night, Kai learns the hard way that Rick believes in ghosts when he's drunk, and walks the trembling shaggy-haired boy back to the Poultry farm, trying not to turn bright red at the way he's _clinging_.

#31 – Book

A few days later, Rick learns by accident that Kai doesn't _just_ read romance novels for _research_, when he finds the boy too engrossed in _Heart of Ice, Eyes of Flame_ to hear his approach, and it's really kind of lucky, because now they _both_ have dirt on each other.

#32 – Eye

Rick's gotten to the point that he can mumble an apology while looking at a spot on the horizon behind Kai's head, and part of Kai wonders how long it'll be before Rick can look him in the eye when he says it.

#33 – Never

"I don't get it; Kai _never_ comes to see me anymore," Popuri wails, distressed, one day, and Rick thinks it's kind of weird, because Kai was here just the other day, wasn't he?

#34 – Sing

Even though he's not as good as his _girlfriend_, Kai still stops in astonishment and listens avidly when he finds Rick humming an old, familiar hymn as he goes about his work – although, _that_ might just be the novelty of hearing the guy make a noise that isn't _yelling_.

#35 – Sudden

Rick wishes he could say it _happened out of nowhere_, Kai's hands finding the sides of his face and Kai's lips finding his for a brief second in the middle of a bout of _rough-housing_ on the beach, but when he sees Karen and Popuri watching in thinly-veiled amused delight and Zack rolling his eyes in completely unsurprised disgust, he knows it's been coming for a while.

#36 – Stop

Neither of them knows if it would be better to take one step backwards to _friends_ now, or if it has to be several steps backwards into _enemies_, so they just don't talk anymore at all.

#37 – Time

When Kai finds a carefully, clumsily wrapped little box on the bench next to his café, and opens it to find an old watch given to an adoring son by a father who couldn't live up to such adoration forever, he takes it as a sign and makes up his mind to wait for Rick by the bar tonight.

#38 – Wash

"You know, if you'd wash your hair once in a while, you wouldn't always have to wear that bandana," Rick told Kai one day when he saw him about to collapse from the heat; to which Kai replied plaintively, "But if I didn't wear the bandana, I'd have to wash my hair!"

#39 – Torn

For the first time, Kai has to think _really hard _about whether he wants to leave Mineral Town come autumn or not.

#40 – History

When Karen asks bluntly and _for his own good_ what's going on with him and Kai now, Rick just shrugs sulkily and replies that they're _friends who kissed once_ – hell, that's what Mary and Elli are; and now Karen looks like she's trying to decide whether to hit the Library of the Clinic for the full story, or whether she's happier not knowing.

#41 – Power

It's weird, Rick thinks through a cloud of dull misery at the baffled hurt in Kai's expression when an attempt at a goodbye-hug was brusquely pushed off, that just as soon as he gained the power to hurt the guy, he stopped wanting it.

#42 – Bother

Kai isn't completely aware of the grin spreading over his face as he rereads the gruff, awkward lines, and then pulls out a fresh sheet of paper to scribble his reply: _Hey, Rick; sure, I'll come for Starry Night Festival, if you're sure it's not too much trouble for you three._

#43 – God

The Festival is something special that year, because Rick is too busy exchanging good-natured barbs with Kai to pick on his sister, and Popuri's laugh mingles with her mother's just as beautiful, and Rick wonders if _this_ is what people mean when they can feel God's presence – this feeling that you could just stay in this moment forever because you can't imagine any other one being half as good.

#44 – Wall

Just as the four of them are about to go to sleep the next evening, Popuri scurries away and returns with a grey wool stocking, and explains very gravely to Kai that Rick went over a few days ago and asked Ellen to make this because he didn't want their guest to be left out, even if they can't hang it up on the wall because there are only three hooks.

#45 – Naked

When he accidentally catches Kai stepping out of the shower, Rick forgets for several moments that he shouldn't be embarrassed and fascinated and nervous and excited, that he should be as unconcerned as Kai, who's asking him to _toss a guy a towel, since you're here anyway_.

#46 – Drive

With a tiny little smile that ages her instantly to her age and older, partly wistful and partly _glad that they're happy_, Popuri slips quietly out of the room to leave her big brother and her good friend alone to watch their silly racing show.

#47 – Harm

Rick gravely agrees with Karen's candid warning and Lillia's gentle one, that he and Kai ought to be a little less _blatant_ about it, because not everyone will be so happy for them; Kai simply scoffs and asks, _who's it hurting_?

#48 – Precious

After a summer that has come and gone far faster than he wanted it to, Kai begins the packing he's put off for as long as possible and wonders with a chuckle why he feels like he's leaving something very precious unguarded – who'd have thought _he'd _be the protective one?

#49 – Hunger

He knows he's got to be up to leave early, so Kai purposely avoids any plans that evening, until Rick asks him with something new and a little scary in those eyes that are so nice when they're not glaring, if he wants to go for a walk.

#50 – Believe

When Rick finally tells Kai what he's wanted to for ages now, Kai just scoffs and orders Rick to stop playing around, or he's going home; so with a tiny grin that's partly playful and partly terrified, Rick decides to convince him the only way he knows how.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

End Notes: Yaay for yaoi! And alliteration also!


	4. KarenMary Beta theme set

Karen/Mary – Beta theme set

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#01 – Walking

Whenever she sees Mary amble slowly past the Supermarket with her nose in a book, she'll hurry out after her and make sure she doesn't walk into anything – and sometimes call _look out,_ just to be mean.

#02 – Waltz

"I really think you should go home and sleep when you're this drunk," Mary declares, dropping to her bed, breathless and flushed from being waltzed crazily around the room by Karen.

#03 – Wishes

"Karen, swallowing the worm at the bottom of the tequila bottle symbolizes valour; it doesn't grant you a wish."

#04 – Wonder

The first time they met – through Elli, who had been over to say hello to the _new family_ as soon as she saw a quiet dark-haired girl near her own ten years or age – they both wondered, baffled, where the little brunette got the idea that they would get along _really_ _well_, because there were hardly two people more different in the world.

#05 – Worry

And even though she never knew just how it happened, her and Mary not getting along all that well because they're just _too different_ went from being a _fact_ to something to worry about.

#06 – Whimsy

"Of _course_ it's silly," Mary huffs; "It's a _fairy tale_."

#07 - Waste/Wasteland

Mary nods thoughtfully, but still secretly disagrees when Karen flashes back in anger that drinking might be a waste of _money_, but writing's an even bigger waste of _time_; at least, when she spends a whole day writing, she has something to show for it besides a huge headache.

#08 - Whiskey and rum

Sometimes, it annoys Karen that _she's_ the avid wine connoisseur, but _Mary's_ the one who can throw back a shot of straight whiskey or rum without coughing and sputtering; other times, she's too busy giggling at the face Mary makes when someone dares her to do it, to care.

#09 – War

Just now, they're not speaking, because Karen's still a little raw over losing Rick's attention to that new girl who's running the farm, and Mary retracted her invitation to go to the fireworks together, because she doesn't like being a _consolation prize_.

#10 – Weddings

But at least they've made up in time to dance at Elli's wedding beneath the curious, alarmed, amused, or intrigued gazes of the rest of the town, and the beaming delight of the bride, who _swears_ she saw this coming.

#11 – Birthday

Karen gave her a bottle of wine for her birthday last year, so just to get her back, Mary gives her a beautiful hardcover book on the history of winemaking for them to read together; and even though neither of them will ever admit it, both secretly cherished their gifts from the other more than anything else they got.

#12 – Blessing

Somehow, it's a lot easier for her to be happy for Rick and Claire – _give her blessing_, two old childhood friends joke together – when she remembers that she and Mary planned to meet tomorrow and go looking for grasses.

#13 – Bias

Even though he and Claire are an _old married couple_ by now – _six months_, after all – Mary still develops a spontaneous craving for barbecued chicken wings, made with the feathered denizens of the Poultry Farm, whenever Rick and Karen laugh and talk like the rest of the world doesn't exist anymore, because how could any man _not_ be madly in love with Karen?

#14 – Burning

"You'd think that even if neither of _us_ can cook, having your mom to help us would make it _edible_, at least," Karen said mournfully, chin in her hands, as Mary poked at the blackened lump proudly displayed on one of Anna's dainty little cake plates.

#15 – Breathing

The first time Karen kissed her, she felt her heart springing up into her throat, and it took her a long time to remember how to breathe again.

#16 – Breaking

Anna and Sasha are a little worried about them, these two beautiful young women who were _children_ the day before last, because Mary seems so sweet and pliable but becomes more immovable the more she's pushed, and Karen doesn't even _try_ to give the impression that she's agreeable, and everyone knows that what doesn't bend will break; but Jeff isn't so worried, because he thinks that they'll teach one another to bend.

#17 – Belief

Mary isn't completely sure if she really _believes_ in the Harvest Goddess or not; Karen isn't completely sure why Mary's wasting her time worrying about it.

#18 – Balloon

Mary doesn't know why it struck her as so funny, but when she ran into Karen making balloon animals for Stu and May, she spent the rest of the day giggling, despite Karen's angry protests that it's _not that funny_.

#19 – Balcony

Basil's starting to wish they hadn't added that second-floor balcony, because one of these days, Karen's going to hurt herself scaling it being Mary's _Romeo_.

#20 – Bane

It's great that Saibara's grandson has this sudden, burning thirst for knowledge and literature, Karen thinks, sulking in the corner of the Supermarket as Gray blushes and stammers his way through a conversation with Mary, but does he have to make it so damn _blatant_?

#21 – Quiet

Whenever she hears people describing Karen as _noisy_, she thinks that they should spend a day with her when she's sulking; like today – Mary considers herself lucky to have gotten more than a few words out of her.

#22 – Quirks

"There are some people who thinks quirks like that are _cute_," Mary informs Ann, blushing brightly and frowning darkly, when the redhead shakes her head with some comment about how Karen's keeping them in business single-handedly.

#23 – Question

Karen thinks she might have to get used to this, Mary's tendency to ask a question just for the sake of asking it, because _she's_ been raised to _answer_ questions when she hears them, even if it's just with an "I don't know, and why does it matter, anyway?"

#24 – Quarrel

And she'd get used to it _soon_, because even though she doesn't mean it to sound annoyed or dismissive of Mary's thoughts and opinions, it's been the source of more than one fight.

#25 – Quitting

"It's kind of funny," Rick points out, hiding a grin, "that you decided right away that _you_ should change the way you are, and stop doing it if it hurts Mary's feelings – a year ago, you would have said _she_ should just grow a thicker skin and stop being offended by it."

#26 – Jump

It's become Karen's new favourite game, sneaking up on Mary when she's reading intently, deeply immersed in her own little world to the exclusion of this one, and seeing if she how high she'll jump _today_ when Karen brushes a little kiss over the back of her neck.

#27 – Jester

"That wasn't funny," Mary announces, pouting and trying to slow her racing heart; Karen, snickering madly away from her perch on the library desk, seems to disagree.

#28 – Jousting

"There's no way in hell I'm learning jousting," Karen declares flatly when Mary's pink-cheeked, starry-eyed description of the book she'd just finished comes to a close; "I got enough bruises scaling your balcony."

#29 – Jewel

Mary blushes sweetly when Karen gives her the ruby necklace Saibara just finished for her and asks if she'll wear it for their next date; when Karen continues, _and nothing else_, she turns bright, blazing red, but doesn't refuse.

#30 – Just

However, as she points out to Karen, leaning over the edge of the Hot Spa, chin resting on her hands, it's not fair if _she's_ the only one wandering around with no clothes on.

#31 – Smirk

Karen smirks a little as she starts pulling off her own clothes, but then Mary climbs, dripping wet, out of the steaming water, and Karen gets a good look, and her smirk fades into something dazed, hungry, and a little terrified.

#32 – Sorrow

When Rick finds one of Starrynight Farm's chicken's dead and finds his wife too busy to mourn properly, he seeks out his oldest friend, and ends up being trapped in the middle of a group-hug as Mary and Karen both offer their consolation for the sake of the dear, departed, poorly-named BBQ; and it's just as well that he doesn't notice Karen grabbing Mary's nicely rounded little backside, behind his back.

#33 – Stupidity

"I think it's kind of sweet, actually, the way those chickens mean so much to him," Mary admits once Rick has left, and Karen apologizes for such a fuss over a _dumb chicken_; and now she's giggling madly as Karen pulls a long face and launches into a requiem mass for BBQ.

#34 – Serenade

She'd be a lot more horrified, that Karen chose to _bring the party to her_ by standing outside her bedroom window and belting out an impassioned love song, if Karen wasn't one of those rare people who sings better with a few pints in her than most people do sober.

#35 – Sarcasm

Between the two of them, Popuri's never entirely sure if she's being made fun of, because it's bad enough that _Karen's_ not being serious more than half the time, without _Mary_ picking up on it too; neither girl has the heart to tell Pops that it's _Mary_ who's passed it onto _Karen_.

#36 – Sordid

"I dare you to write a really hot, sleazy story about us someday," Karen snickers, and Mary gives her a tranquil little smile and goes home and does it.

#37 – Soliloquy

"But why would he just sit there, pouring out his soul in the middle of an empty park?" Karen asks, baffled, and Mary huffs in annoyance that she's missing the point of a _soliloquy_.

#38 – Sojourn

"You know," Karen eventually calls mildly after two hours in a bookstore, "this isn't exactly what I had in mind when you invited me on a trip to the city."

#39 – Share

"Wow, you two are so lucky!" Popuri squeals when Mary emerges, hastily dressed, in shorts and a purple vest, and Karen emerges likewise hastily dressed and very annoyed in a blue pleated jumper and blouse; "_I_ can't share clothes with _my _special someone!"

#40 – Solitary

It would take a very close observer, well familiar with both girls, to know that they're not angry with each other, that they love more devotedly than ever despite the fact that they're a foot apart and not saying a word; each girl wrapped up in her own thoughts, both able to find solitude in the other's presence.

#41 – Nowhere

"I don't know if there's _anywhere_ that would call _that_ appropriate," Mary admits, trying not to laugh, when Karen drags from her closet a nightmarish creation of salmon-pink frills and the occasional grass-green bow that was once a bridesmaid dress for a cousin's wedding, and asks if Mary thinks she'll ever find a place to wear it again.

#42 – Neutral

Kai always likes to say teasingly that it's so hard to know who to side with when they have a fight, because a guy's got to side with the _lady_, it's only polite, but they're _both_ the lady; Rick, who's known Karen long enough to know better, always sides with Mary.

#43 – Nuance

Karen doesn't read a _lot_, but she knows good writing when she sees it, and she suspects that it's in all those details Mary throws in.

#44 – Near

"You don't have to talk if you don't want to," Mary sobs, clinging tightly to her lover the day they get the news that Basil's father, after a long illness, has passed away; "Just don't go away."

#45 – Natural

Mary is the only person in Mineral Town who _really_ believes that those gorgeous pale gold highlights in Karen's hair are completely natural; she's also the only person who wouldn't snicker just a little bit at the idea of Karen, who has no time for that crap, using hair dye.

#46 – Horizon

It's beautiful up on Goddess Peak this time of the morning, even if both of them are too occupied with...other things to notice the view.

#47 – Valiant

"Don't be a hero, Karen; she'll look up eventually,but Mary really doesn't like people taking her book," Basil says nervously, rolling up his sleeve to reveal a long, jagged scar when Karen, exasperated by half an hour waiting for her girlfriend to notice her, makes a move to pull that book away from an avidly reading Mary.

#48 – Virtuous

Maybe it's just because she's in a bad mood right now, but Karen strongly suspects that Mary isn't nagging her to give up drinking for her health, but because she doesn't like the idea that her girlfriend is the only person in Mineral Town who can drink Duke, Doug, _and_ Saibara under the table in one night.

#49 – Victory

"Okay, Mary, if it's that important to you, I'll give up wine for a season, just to show you that I can," Karen grumbles good-naturedly, and Mary's satisfied, beaming smile is so fiendishly cute that she ends up feeling like she won, after all.

#50 – Defeat

Mary only had a little bit of time to bask in her victory before the defeat, when Basil offered to buy both girls a drink over at Doug's tonight; and as Karen sends her a hopeful sideways glance, she sighs: _Well, it was nice while it lasted...all thirty seconds._

_---------------------------------------------------_

End Notes: Darnit! I'm really starting to like the lovely Miss Karen. Who woulda thought? Oh, well; I guess there are worse things than liking all the characters. XD


	5. ZackPopuri Delta theme set

Popuri/Zack – Delta theme set

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#01 – Air

It just doesn't sit well with him when he hears people calling Popuri an airhead, and he doesn't think it's _entirely_ because she's Lillia's daughter.

#02 – Apples

Won was furious, but Zack didn't care; he wasn't about to let the sweet, earnest little thing, only trying to do her part for her family, blow her entire month's allowance on one of those damn 'special apples' just because Won was prepared to let her think that they might help her mother's condition.

#03 – Beginning

That book he sent home with her was a pleasant surprise, because the first few pages seemed _so_ boring, but the more she read, the more she liked.

#04 – Bugs

He found out the hard way that she gets _really mad_ when she sees someone step on a bug, but by the time they get to the gate of the Poultry Farm, she's already forgiven him enough to give him a warm hug.

#05 – Coffee

"When did you start drinking coffee?" he asks good-humouredly when she leaps on the steaming hot cup Ann just slid in front of her, with a grateful yelp.

#06 – Dark

"I can't help it," she pouted, before hiding forgivingly in his shoulder despite his gentle laugh. "I don't like the dark."

#07 – Despair

She's starting to believe Rick when he mutters darkly that Dad's never planning on coming home, and she doesn't know if she's angrier because Zack doesn't seem to mind, or because of _why_ he doesn't seem to mind.

#08 – Doors

He knows that Rick is a good guy, and he'd do anything to look after his mother and Popuri, but he still feels easier once he's found the chance to install the lock on their front door.

#09 – Drink

She tries to be offended when he takes one look at her and laughs uproariously, but she knows she must make a pretty silly sight, seated at the kitchen table, daintily sipping a glass of wine for the illusion of sophistication, and making a terrible face with every sip.

#10 – Duty

Zack has been walking her home from Kai's beach cafe every evening this summer, and it's nice, because despite nothing in common they find a lot to talk about, but she wonders, half wistful and half annoyed, if he might ever want to spend some time with her that_ isn't_ because he feels this misplaced duty to fill in for Dad.

#11 – Earth

Lately, she's been trying extra-hard to look grown-up and dignified when she sees him, so it just _figures_ that he would happen by Goddess Pond while she's playing house with Stu and May; to save face, she calls out a chirpy hello, and gives him the fantastic mud ball she made for "supper", before skipping away with two delighted children on her heels.

#12 – End

Of course he's got better things to do in the evenings than walk a silly little girl because she _has_ to come visit her _boyfriend_ everyday; nevertheless, he's kind of sorry that summer's ending and Kai's closing up the beach cafe for another year.

#13 – Fall

But she really, really likes planting Blue Magic Grass, trying her luck to see how many beautiful, brilliant red blossoms appear in the sea of blue, and only Won sells the seeds, so it isn't like they never see each other anymore.

#14 – Fire

"I don't do a lot of baking of my own," he confesses sheepishly, happily accepting another piece of her delicious chocolate cake; "The kitchen always starts on fire."

#15 – Flexible

"You _have_ to show me some day!" she squeals when the conversation somehow strays onto his past position on a gymnastics team.

#16 – Flying

When she says wistfully that she'd love to go up in an airplane, he promises to take her someday, and she giggles that that's going to be a really busy day, because he's already promised to take her skiing, shopping in Paris, and out to see an opera.

#17 – Food

She's really glad that he always seems to be hungry, because she's trying really hard to learn to cook as well as Mom, and she needs a critic; he suppresses a pained groan when she brings out dessert after everything he's already eaten, but forces himself to eye the admittedly delicious-looking pie bursting with warm caramelized apples and brown sugar hungrily.

#18 – Foot

When he finds her dancing lightly around the shore, long skirts and softly curling pink hair whirling around her in the breeze, he stays back a little to make sure she doesn't see him there, and watches her; and now he's half an hour behind on his rounds, but it was worth it.

#19 – Grave

He finds her sobbing one day, because Manna asked her if she and Rick had begun to make any plans for her mother's funeral, and ten minutes later Duke stares, bewildered, when he come storming through the door of the Winery and bellows at him to keep his wife's gossipy tongue in check.

#20 – Green

She spends most of the Starry Night Festival a little annoyed, not because Kai's come back in from town to spend it with her, because she _likes_ Kai, and she's thrilled to see him; but because Zack was, too – he acted like he wasn't even jealous!

#21 – Head

But she doesn't know how hard it was for him to do it, will _never_ know about the hours he spent that night trying to remind himself that she's liked Kai for years, and they belong together when he's _thinking rationally_.

#22 – Hollow

He sent that book home with her, about a priceless jewel hidden in the walls of a stately mansion, and when he came to borrow her for a walk, he found her rapping lightly at all the walls of the farmhouse to see if there could be treasure in there.

#23 – Honor

When she kisses him, swiftly and unexpectedly, it takes him a long time to work around to what should have been his first thought: _Rod trusted me to protect his family; I'm letting down the best friend I ever had, the only guy who cared to give me a chance, God help me, I'll go as far as she's willing._

#24 – Hope

He pushed her off, very gently and carefully but very firmly, when she tried to tell him last night, blushing but resolute, that she wanted to make love; she thinks it was hard for him to do, so she just keeps hoping that he won't be able to next time.

#25 – Light

He managed to push doubt and self-loathing firmly out of his head when she gave him that smile of pure invitation that no _little girl_ could possibly know, but when he feels her tiny, curvy, feather-light little body resting against him afterward, sees her sweet, childlike smile in the pale moonlight, it comes rushing right back and he wishes he could die, but even slow and painful would be too good for him.

#26 – Lost

"Whoa, what did I miss?" Rick asks bewilderedly when he comes home to find his mother clinging, desperately relieved, to her daughter who didn't come home last night, and Zack explaining heavily that he did something terrible, but if Popuri doesn't hate him for it, if Rick and Lillia think they can trust him, he'll do the right thing and marry her.

#27 – Metal

"I am _not_ marrying you if you're only asking because you think you should," Popuri, eighteen and willful and madly in love, snarls before hurling the little silver ring he offered for a promise of a better one as soon as possible, right back at him.

#28 – New

"You're missing the _point_, Zack," Lillia tells him with a gentle giggle as he stares, baffled, after the lovely pink-haired girl, sent swiftly outside for a walk to _cool down_ by his new offer, including a brand-new, stunning gold ring of diamond and ruby.

#29 – Old

Lillia, and Rick, and Karen, and Ann, and even that nice Elli girl at the clinic have all tried to tell Zack why Popuri's so angry with him right now, but it's Saibara who gets through to him eventually, because Saibara's been a man long enough to know what Zack needs to hear.

#30 – Peace

And so, armed with a better knowledge of what he's been doing wrong, Zack makes one more visit to Popuri and finally thinks to tell her that he loves more than he ever thought possible when she was that scrawny, bratty little kid, hanging around and pestering "Uncle Zack"; and even though the wedding won't be for a few seasons, he sleeps sounder than he has for weeks.

#31 – Poison

He likes to think of himself as _protecting_ her, at least until she finally finishes growing up, but it's not always that way; like the time she found him cooking up something he found in the woods, and scolded him because he almost poisoned himself.

#32 – Pretty

"Yeah, she's pretty when you dress her up like a girl," he retorts when she teases him, utterly without malice or jealousy, for blushing at the sight of Ann in a frilly yellow summer frock; "But it's nothing to the sight of you in a pair of my ratty old sweats, with your head in a towel."

#33 – Rain

She never used to _really_ like walking in the rain – not like Karen and Elli and Mary, anyway – but now she has a reason; the sight of Zack in a tight, soaking wet white tee-shirt is something that must be seen to be appreciated.

#34 – Regret

When Kai comes back this summer in time for Popuri and Zack's wedding, he offers his congratulations heartily and delightedly, utterly without hesitation or regret, and Rick starts thinking that maybe this guy isn't bad after all.

#35 – Roses

He knows that it depresses her to see cut flowers wilting, so when her birthday rolls around, he shows up with three beautiful, leafy rose bushes to plant in the front yard of their new house, right across from the Poultry Farm.

#36 – Secret

She has something _special_ in mind for their first anniversary, but it's a surprise, so she's extra-careful not to let him know where she's going when she sneaks away for a brief photo session with her old friend Kai and his new boyfriend; and even though it's a little embarrassing, posing sexily in front of her brother, she knows that Zack will _love_ this.

#37 – Snakes

He knows it _shouldn't _surprise him, when she picks up that snake without fear and uses it to tease a madly blushing Rick that it's strange that he's freaking out over this one when he seems to like _Kai's_ snake so well; but he's pretty sure that she'll never stop surprising him.

#38 – Snow

He finds out during an impromptu snowball fight that there's nothing in the world cuter than Popuri looking startled, snow dripping off her face, so he pelts another one at her just to see it again.

#39 – Solid

She knows that his rounds take longer in winter; nevertheless, when he finally gets home, in the midst of a severe storm, she clings to him for a long time, delighting in how real and solid he feels in her arms after an evening of worrying.

#40 – Spring

When Spring finally returns to Mineral Town, she gushes about how _beautiful_ her favourite season is this year, and he reminds her with a grin that Winter was her favourite season just a few days ago, and that Summer and Autumn are both her favourite while she's in them.

#41 – Stable

He's a little annoyed at how often she and Karen are going to visit that new guy, Jack, until he finds out that while Karen spends the whole time flirting with the guy, Popuri spends it in the stable, oohing and ahhing over the pretty little chestnut-coloured colt.

#42 – Strange

"Weird," she replies candidly when he asks what she thought on their way back from _Philomena_; he laughs uproariously and agrees, because seriously, who writes an opera about a guy named Steve?

#43 – Summer

She's been looking giddily forward to Summer, because she just bought a brand-new bathing suit to wear this year; he's been looking giddily forward to Summer, because she just bought a brand-new bathing suit to wear this year.

#44 – Taboo

And she takes full advantage of his reaction the first time she wears it to the beach, and drags him under the pier for a little bit of _wholesome marital fun_.

#45 – Ugly

"I'm so glad you're not _ugly_ like my brother," Popuri says airily, and now Kai is angry with her, but it doesn't matter, because Zack is beaming, and even Rick is just laughing.

#46 – War

He has to hand it to her, he thinks wearily after an argument, that for such a sweet girl, she sure elevates every tiny disagreement to an all-out war.

#47 – Water

And yet, all it takes to make her totally forget why she was angry is walking in on him in the bath; and when she peels off her dress and comes to join him, he totally forgets, too.

#48 – Welcome

She might not be the smartest girl in the world, but he's no braniac either, so it's just fine; and anyway, she's a fantastic cook, a good housekeeper, and there's nothing in the world more welcoming than her smile after a long day of work.

#49 – Winter

It's Winter again, and, he teases, her _other_ very favourite season ever.

#50 – Wood

She's been trying for weeks to find the _perfect time_ to tell him, whisper the little secret that a trip to the Clinic confirmed, but when he drops that heavy log on his toe instead of into the fireplace, she thinks with a sigh that her timing really sucks.

_---------------------------------------------------_


	6. DoctorElli Beta theme set

Doctor/Elli – Beta theme set

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#01 – Walking

It was a problem almost right from her first day at the Clinic, seventeen and innocent to a fault despite common sense beyond her years; this near-hypnotic state he would fall into at the sight of her hips swaying gently beneath those long skirts when she walked.

#02 – Waltz

She doesn't understand why she had to practically twist his arm to get him to dance with her, when he's clearly twice as good at it as she is.

#03 – Wish 

When she asks what _he_ wished for, he tells her, of course, that he wished for healing for Ellen and Lillia that he couldn't give them, even though he's half-tempted to tell her what he _really_ wished for, just to see her blush bright enough to double as a light source.

#04 – Wonder

She buries herself even more avidly in her studies tonight, just to stop from analyzing every tiny nuance of his words and voice when he told her that she'd _make a good wife someday._

#05 – Worry 

Her expression when he fibbed and intimated that he was more worried for the Clinic's sake than for the sake of her health if she should overwork herself made him wish he could take it back, but it was far too soon to tell her what he had only begun to suspect himself.

#06 – Whimsy

She pretends not to notice him listening intently as she reads to Barley's little dark-eyed granddaughter snuggled into her lap from a big volume of fairytales, because she knows he would run away, embarrassed, and she likes having a captive audience.

#07 - Waste/Wasteland

As long as the two of them are living here, Mineral Town will never see a drop of milk wasted.

#08 - Whiskey and rum

He hid a smile as he watched her trying valiantly to resist another one of the delicious fruity rum coolers Karen brought over for their Girl's Night Out while she's out in the kitchen refilling that same young lady's Whisky and Pepsi.

#09 – War

But he has to try even harder not to smile the next morning, when he finds himself waging war on his sweet little nurse's miserable hangover.

#10 – Weddings

When he bowed out of attending Karen and Rick's wedding because he was swamped with work, she watched him with huge, sad eyes for the next week, and eventually demanded if he was madly in love with Karen and upset because Rick got her instead.

#11 – Birthday

Even though it's a little impractical because she hardly ever has a chance to wear necklaces, she squeals in astonished delight over the beautiful rosy-white pearls that were his gift for her twenty-first birthday, and wears them ever chance she gets, and he makes a mental note to find a matching bracelet for next year.

#12 – Blessing

To a man brought up to assume what went right and count up the obstacles as the first step to overcoming them, her sweet, sunny nature that counted up the good and assumed the bad was a bit of a shock, but hardly unpleasant.

#13 – Bias

"Yes, but I think you might be speaking from a biased point of view," Ellen chuckles when the doctor asserts again that her granddaughter is easily the prettiest girl in town. 

#14 – Burning

When he finds her on Mother's Hill, tears flowing thickly enough to nearly douse the fire she's using to burn up a little bundle of love notes from the young farmer that's being married tomorrow to the innkeeper's daughter, he comes the closest he ever has to craving to _take_ a life instead of _save_ it.

#15 – Breathing

But since he can't do that, he merely carries her back to the Clinic and reinvents his role in her life from _boss_ to _friend_, letting her curl up in his lap and rubbing wide, slow circles over her back until those painful, constricted sobs stop and her breathing slows and deepens.

#16 – Breaking

When Tim overhears Karen asking Jack bluntly what happened to him and Elli, he listens more carefully and manages to overhear the answer: "Yeah, she's sweet and everything, but I changed my mind the first time I got her into bed; I like _girls_, not _cattle_"; then he ends up dragging Jack grimly to the Clinic to repair the broken nose he gave him, only to wish he had done an arm at the same time when he finds Elli staring loathingly at her soft, curvy little figure in the mirror later that night.

#17 – Belief

"Oh, I certainly _do_ believe in the Harvest Goddess," Elli tells him bitterly when he asks if a bright, educated girl like her really buys into these superstitions, "because she's supposed to be _very_ beautiful, and it seems like only beautiful girls get anywhere in this world – she'd want to protect her own, right?"

#18 – Balloon

She knows he holds very dearly to his dignity, so it means more than she knows how to express without being _flowery_ when he keeps that silly balloon with its cartoonish doggie wishing him a _Happy Birthday_ tied to the back of his chair all day despite the amused smiles of the patients.

#19 – Balcony

When he finds her poring over house plan magazines and marking down the features she especially likes, he promises her laughingly that their house when they retire will have all the balconies she wants, and then kicks himself as her eyes widen and her cheeks flush with the implication.

#20 – Bane

An old med school friend of his comes to visit Mineral Town for a few days, and the beautiful, sophisticated young woman quickly becomes Elli's greatest fear; at least, until she takes laughing, affectionate pity on the little brunette and confides the Clinic's _nurse_ is more to her tastes than its _doctor_, but that the _nurse_ is clearly taken. 

#21 – Quiet

She knows all about his love of serene, quiet, orderly places, and tries her hardest to make their shared living quarters upstairs such a place.

#22 – Quirks

When she first met him, it seemed like he didn't _have_ quirks like normal people; now, she knows each one as well as she knows her own name, and loves them all so much that it almost hurts.

#23 – Question

Even though it was very nearly just a formality after his stumbling, terrified confession of love that evening on the shore, he could feel his heart in his throat when he finally asked her, before work the next day, if she would agree to become Mrs. Trent.

#24 – Quarrel

He's almost unconscious of the tiny smile curving his lips gently for the brief period between their first real argument, and her affectionate apology and plea for reconciliation – after all, he loves her strength and independence, and the last thing he wants is a slave or a groupie.

#25 – Quitting

"Y-you're not going to want me to quit working with you now, are you?" she asks nervously, snuggled up to her new husband, and he laughs: "Absolutely not; you have no idea how much you've spoiled me, and I doubt I could cope without you now even if I wanted to."

#26 – Jump

"Elli, someone might come by," he protests half-heartedly when she finds him on Mother's Hill, loosening his collar and wiping his sweat-drenched brow, and proceeds to jump him.

#27 – Jester

"I don't mind that you don't joke around all the time," she announces thoughtfully upon finding him a little annoyed by her beautiful laugh sounding almost all evening throughout that party where Karen's cousin from the city kept her monopolized most of the time; "I like people who can be serious every now and again."

#28 – Jousting

When he finds her staging a jousting tournament with the contents of her desk, he surmises with a fond smile that she must be very bored; when he recalls the morning he's just spent trying to invent little tasks for himself between walk-ins, he stays to join her.

#29 – Jewel

"Well, you know, the Blue Feather tradition is so prevalent here that I didn't get a chance to buy you an engagement ring," he points out when she exclaims, horrified yet secretly delighted, that the beautiful necklace starred with sapphire and diamond, must have cost far more than they had agreed on for birthday gifts.

#30 – Just

"Elli, I don't think you're being fair," he tells her gently when she whispers to him how grateful she is that he's not a big jerk like _some_ men, after a much-consoled Ann has gone home after a morning of comforting snuggles and men-bashing; "I'm sure it wasn't _entirely_ Jack's fault – you know as well as I do how Ann can be."

#31 – Smirk

"Two years, and they're still newlyweds," Karen mutters to Rick with a smirk when they catch sight of the doctor and his pretty bride tangled up in each other in a quiet corner of the inn, unaware of the rest of the world.

#32 – Sorrow

He knew that she would be devastated when it finally came time for Ellen to go, he thinks, kissing the top of her head gently enough not to wake her from the exhausted sleep that hours of crying finally drove her into, but he didn't quite expect to feel like a piece of his own heart had been torn out.

#33 – Stupidity

"It's because she's _stupid_," little Stu Greene mutters sulkily and just a wee bit guiltily when Tim returns from a visit with Carter to find his wife locked in their room and refusing to come out; eventually, he gets the full story and has some rather sharp words for the boy who apparently shouted at his big sister that she was to blame for Grandma's death.

#34 – Serenade

"Karen helped me with it," she admits, blushing, as he goes from delighted admiration at the slinky, silky red dress with its plunging neckline and thigh-high slits, to slightly choked up adoration at her _special one-night-only performance_ of one of his favourite love songs.

#35 – Sarcasm

"What can I say?" she laughs sheepishly when he stares in amazement at an uncharacteristically snarky comment; "I'm learning from the best."

#36 – Sordid

"So, how much did you tell her?" Tim asks nervously when Elli tells him blushingly that Popuri, in town for the summer with Kai, demanded _every last naughty detail_ of their love-life, because she suspected than anyone as straight-laced in public as the two of them have always been, _had_ to be a lust-demon behind closed doors.

#37 – Soliloquy

She really didn't mean to fall asleep while he was talking to her; it was just that he was so warm, and snuggly, and she was so sleepy after a night spent mostly...um, trying for a baby; but at least he wasn't angry, because he found out that occasionally her hands wander while she's asleep. 

#38 – Sojourn

"Why don't you come to the Library with me today?" he asked casually one Wednesday afternoon when Stu is playing happily with May and asked as subtly as an eleven-year old boy ever had that she go away; "Are you sure?" she asked doubtfully, recalling his need for a little time alone every now and again.

#39 – Share

"Kai says you two are disgustingly cutesy," Stu announces from his perch on one of the stools at the counter of the Beachside Café, as Elli finally manages to convince Tim to try the Lady and the Tramp thing and share a piece of spaghetti, "but I think _that's_ just _disgusting_."

#40 – Solitary

She suspects that he's starting to rub off on her when she finds herself growing snappish without at least a few minutes alone each day.

#41 – Nowhere

He aches with sympathy for her when she laments, after a long illness that's kept her more or less confined to bed, that she feels like she doesn't _belong_ anywhere anymore, like her place has grown over while she was fighting off pneumonia; so once he's satisfied that she's recovered her strength sufficiently, he carries her upstairs to bed and shows her every way he knows how that her place with him will never be filled by someone else.

#42 – Neutral

She's trying very hard to keep her expression neutral, because Tim and Carter have just asked for her input to settle a debate on some scholarly matter that she barely understands but can still see right through to two little boys being stubborn; and it's difficult, especially when she wants more than anything to laugh at them for being so silly.

#43 – Nuance

"I think you have the feeling down beautifully; your expression and dynamics are certainly improving," he replies when she asks, flushed and triumphant and hopeful, for his opinion on the flute piece she's just finished.

#44 – Near

He's grateful that she doesn't chatter at him all night when he's trying to study, but he's even more grateful that she still stays nearby, cuddled up next to him with a textbook or one of her beloved Austens, depending on what kind of night it is.

#45 – Natural

When Jack's cousin Sara comes to visit from the city, talking airily about how _organic is the only way you can be assured freshness_, Tim and Elli both take a great, impish delight in systematically breaking down her faith in the label by imparting horror stories of all the additives and pesticides that have seeped into the soil and spread even to land that doesn't use them, until nothing is entirely _organic_ anymore.

#46 – Horizon

He likes to think that he has their entire life together planned out to the day; she's happy with uncertainty, because there are days filled with joy and laughter and sorrow and tears and always, always love as far as she can see, and that's what's important.

#47 – Valiant

She doesn't generally approve of _fighting for a lady's honour_, however good it may sound in novels, but every time she sees that strange bump on Jack's nose from where it was broken close to four years ago, she feels a curious little thrill at the knowledge that he would stand up for her when occasion required.

#48 – Virtuous

She already lost too much weight with the pneumonia last season, so when he finds out from an exasperated Mary that she's on a diet again, he takes a quick trip to Doug's Place and enlists the friendly, laughing redheaded man's help in coaxing her with all her favourite cakes and cookies; but plain, old-fashioned stubbornness prevails, and after four days and not a nibble, he ends up inviting Carter and May to join him and Stu for dessert, since Elli's being silly right now.

#49 – Victory

And when he comes up with a different idea, involving a little jar of rich milk chocolate body paint, they both pride themselves on _a victory well won._

#50 – Defeat

But he's not the only one to shake his head over the other's self-destructive habits; it's been weeks since he allowed himself a day off to just _relax_, so when she wakes up Wednesday morning to find him sorting through research notes for an article he's been working on, she greets him with a loving good-morning kiss in two different places, and he knows that he's long since been beaten.

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End Notes: Well, that's Theme Set #2 with Elli and her Doctor. I just love these two far too much. Theyr'e so...cuddly-sweet. :)


	7. KarenRick Gamma theme set

Karen/Rick Gamma theme set

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#01 – Ring

The first time they met, back when they were five years old and _kissing was icky_, the encounter ended with a dark, bruised ring around Rick's eye, but he was still as anxious as Karen for the second.

#02 – Hero

Elli and Mary have spent all day talking rapidly, with flushed cheeks and starry eyes, about the story they just finished where the _hero_ rescues his _princess_, and Rick, ten years old and awkward, wonders wistfully if Karen wants to be rescued, while Karen thinks in perfect satisfaction that she and Rick are better than those people in the story, because they can rescue _each other_.

#03 – Memory

Neither of them was all that anxious to turn _legal drinking age_, but almost as soon as he hit eighteen, a couple weeks after she did, they gravitated to the Inn when it turned into the _bar_ at seven-on-the-button, and spent a happy evening swapping childhood memories; and they've done it every week since, but they never seem to run out.

#04 – Box

"So, tell me, Rick," Karen begins, red with suppressed laughter as she removes a tiny item from one of the boxes she's helping him go through in the interest of removing clutter, "is there any particular reason that your mother still has your first pair of _big-kid underwear_?"

#05 – Run

She thinks it's kind of sweet that he still has that old watch of his father's, but of course she can't say that, because she's not supposed to like that kind of sappy garbage, so she just scoffs that he'd undermine his own efforts to reduce clutter by keeping a watch that doesn't even run.

#06 – Hurricane

Her mother's furious and frantic about it, but when the hurricane warning comes in, her first move is to sprint down to the Poultry Farm, because if she knows Rick, he's probably out in it too, checking one last time that's actually the sixth to make sure all the chickens are comfortable and the door's locked.

#07 – Wings

He tries to be angry with her for it, but it's impossible not to laugh when he recalls Karen shouting in pain as one of the chickens pecks at her toes through her sandals, and booting it a distance while muttering something about a craving for chicken wings.

#08 – Cold

Even after almost a decade and a half, they're still hearing about the time they skipped an afternoon of seventh-grade math to go ice-fishing, both so stubborn that they were determined not to leave their _fishing spot_ until they'd caught enough to feed the whole town, despite stiff, numbed fingers and stinging ears.

#09 – Red

And when they eventually came slogging back hours later, numb, weary, and empty-handed, it was not sympathy that greeted them, but the holy wrath of a frantic Sasha; so even though they both developed terrible colds and ended up off school for a week, they couldn't enjoy it, because their backsides were too red and sore to sit down.

#10 – Drink

"And the scariest thing is," Ann mutters to her father as they watch Karen and Rick laugh and bicker and wrestle at the bar, "they'd be just as rowdy if they were drinking coffee."

#11 – Midnight

"Don't be a dumbass; you're going to freeze," she says brusquely, shrugging back out of his jacket when he drapes it around her shoulders, and he really doesn't feel that cold, because when his hand brushed her arm a little, she shivered, and he thinks it must have been a good shiver, because he isn't on the ground with her boot in his ass.

#12 – Temptation

She'd so love to punch him, Karen thinks wistfully one morning when her head is pounding while Rick seems to be suffering no ill effect from Ann's birthday party last night, but aside from being disgustingly cheerful, he hasn't really _done_ anything, and she stopped beating on him for no reason a long time ago.

#13 – View

All in all, he had fun at the Moon Viewing Festival this year, especially when Karen grabbed his arm and wrapped it around her shoulders for warmth and snuggled up a bit, even if it was a little disconcerting to know that Sasha and Jeff were making the bushes rustle madly a few feet away.

#14 – Music

She's been trying to get him to sing with her in the Music Festival for years now, but he usually just turns red and shakes his head mutely, even though he never hesitates to join in, belting it out even if he doesn't know it, when they're walking in the mountains.

#15 – Silk

As soon as she heard the rumours that Rick had ordered in a Feather specially from Zack, she started going through pattern books, and she's finally decided on a sleek, slinky slip-dress with an asymmetrical hemline; Rick will love it, she thinks with a smug grin, and so will Dad, because it won't take as much material, and after all, _really nice_ white silk is expensive.

#16 – Cover

"Well, I think we've covered everything," Elli concludes cheerfully, her smile wilting only slightly when she notices the horrified looks on both bride and groom at exactly what even a _small wedding_ is going to entail.

#17 – Promise

Rick's the kind of guy who probably couldn't even see the point of lying if he tried, and he's already said that he'll do everything he can to make her happy, so it almost seems unnecessary, when he promises before Carter and the Harvest Goddess and all of Mineral Town.

#18 – Dream

"Give me a break," she mutters, bright red, when he asks question after delighted question about some offhanded comment Mom just made about how _Karen always wanted to be a dog trainer when she was a little girl_; "It was a long time ago."

#19 – Candle

When Rick comes back to find a _sensual playground_, complete with scented candles and flavoured massage oil and a leather-clad wife, where their bedroom used to be, he frowns in concern that Karen's been _redecorating_ when she should have been lying down with that headache that kept her home from the bar tonight, and she thinks despairingly that her husband wouldn't know a clever ruse if he stepped in it.

#20 – Talent

"Got any more special talents I don't know about?" Karen asks with a smile of pure contentment, covered in Strawberries n' Champagne scented oil and half-asleep from Rick's unexpected skill with this kind of thing.

#21 – Silence

Years of experience with her moods have finally cancelled out what she lovingly calls his _naturally thick skull_, and he can usually tell when it's a good time to go for a walk so she can have some peace and quiet.

#22 – Journey

Jeff is a little dubious about it when his daughter and son-in-law announce their intentions of going on a three-day hiking-and-camping trip, because these are the kids that managed to get themselves lost on a treasure hunt that didn't even leave the street, but Sasha just calls cheerily over her shoulder to say hi to Dr. Livingston for her.

#23 – Fire

Mary's a little annoyed, because Karen was _supposed_ to take some notes on the different plants and birds she and Rick ran into for Basil's new book on the variance to be found over a mere fifty miles, and the only information she comes back with is that _sex in a sleeping bag is nice, until you get too close to the fire_; although, it _is_ good to know what happened to Rick's eyebrows

#24 – Strength

If Karen had known that marrying him and helping out on the Poultry Farm was all she needed to do to free up a little more of his time and energy for fun, she would have done it years ago.

#25 – Mask

"This may surprise you, Rick, but…a _mask_," she replies with a snort of laughter when he asks grumpily what the hell you're supposed to wear to a masquerade, anyway; and when he snorts and says fine, he'll wear a mask and only a mask, he finds the wind taken very quickly out of his sails by Karen's huge grin and enthusiastic agreement.

#26 – Ice

She really doesn't _need_ to be coddled like this, she thinks, sighing contentedly as Rick repositions the ice pack over her sprained ankle and races off to bring her some lemonade and a book, but clearly, it makes him _so_ happy that she can't bring herself to spoil his fun.

#27 – Fall

For a while, they thought of celebrating their birthdays together, since they were within a couple weeks of each other, the middle and the end of autumn, but that was before they remembered that they'll take any excuse to celebrate.

#28 – Forgotten

"Go away, Elli, this is _boy-talk_," Karen said severely when her _second-best friend in all of kindergarten_ tried to squeeze into the sandbox with her and Rick; and it sent the little brunette crying under the slide at the time, but now Elli thinks it's hilarious, and told the story at their wedding despite Karen's protests that it never happened.

#29 – Dance

Karen's _not_ looking forward to teaching Rick how to dance, because she has a strong suspicion that he was born with two left feet; so when he ends up taking to it right away and showing some of the other guys how to do it properly, she can only stare, stunned.

#30 – Body

"Okay, maybe his dress sense sucks, but have you ever seen what's _under_ those godawful clothes?" Karen asks conspiratorially, and Popuri shrieks in disgusted horror, _of course not, he's my brother, that's gross_, and Karen smiles smugly with the knowledge that the subject will be dropped until her sister-in-law can gouge the image from her mind.

#31 – Sacred

"Come on, Rick, give him a break," Karen huffs when she finds her husband and his future brother-in-law blustering over Lillia's decision; "Kai knows that marriage is a sacred bond, and he'll treat Poppi like a princess; and besides," she adds with a terrifying toothy grin, halting Kai's grateful look in its tracks, "he knows that if he _does_ hurt her, we'll kill him."

#32 – Farewells

"I don't freaking believe it," Karen mutters, sniffling and wiping her eyes next to a despondent Rick and a sobbing Popuri; "I'm crying over a goddamned _chicken_."

#33 – World

"Not really," Karen replies equally softly, dragging Rick's arms around her from behind when he asks wistfully, as they watch Kai and Popuri waving happily from the deck of the boat, if she wishes it was them leaving on a trip to somewhere exciting.

#34 – Formal

"Oh, come on, Karen, you didn't even make me wear this crap for our _wedding_," Rick protests when Karen announces pleasantly exactly what he's going to be wearing to the opera they're going to see in the city next week.

#35 – Fever

"No, I swear, it's not a hangover this time; she's actually sick," Rick explains frantically to the young couple at the Clinic, a flushed and rambling Karen cradled in his arms like a child.

#36 – Laugh

Rick doesn't mind sometimes playing the clown if it means he can get a laugh out of Karen, because as gorgeous as it is, even her singing can't compare.

#37 – Lies

When she comes home from a trip to town with Mom, she finds Rick in a state of quiet despair because he's heard from _some_ bozo that she has another guy in the city, and he's had it hammered into his head all season that she's really way too good for him until he's started to believe it.

#38 – Forever

"And even if you _want_ to back out of this," she finally concludes quietly, forcing him to meet her gaze with one hand on each cheek, "it's too late, because you're not going anywhere until you swear that you'll come back."

#39 – Overwhelmed

"I just wish he hadn't blacked out so soon," an unrepentant Karen tells Elli darkly as the doctor works over a yowling adolescent male summer tourist to set a broken arm and a dislocated shoulder, and when she thinks about Rick's haunted, miserable expression for the last few days, Elli can't help but agree.

#40 – Whisper

At her mention of their midnight tryst at the beach last night, everyone in the bar abruptly stops talking and stares, and Rick turns bright red and reflects that Karen's got the loudest whisper he's ever heard.

#41 – Wait

Sasha and Lillia both agree that it's high time Karen and Rick start thinking of children; Karen and Rick think that _some people _sure aren't taking their own admonishments on the importance of _patience_ very seriously.

#42 – Talk

She's got one hell of a headache this morning, and she's lifted her head to order him to _shut up, _when her eyes light on his enthusiastic smile and sparkling eyes, and she settles back down into the pillows and blankets with a tiny grin of her own and lets him talk.

#43 – Search

"Okay, seriously, how many places can a chicken find to hide?" Karen demands, exasperated, after an hour with still no sign of the missing Horatio.

#44 – Hope

They're both born pessimists, when you get right down to it, but as Karen tells Ann with a smirk, at least they're _happy_ about it.

#45 – Eclipse

On their way home from the summer fireworks, Rick points out with a dopey little grin that they're going to be banned from all future festivals if they don't learn to behave in public; and for her part, Karen has a hard time caring, because she's still feeling a little shaky from the fun things Rick's learned to do with his hands that set fireworks bursting right inside her eyelids to rival the ones in the sky.

#46 – Gravity

"Well, enjoy 'em while you can," Karen sighs when she catches him staring in awe and delight that never seems to lessen, no matter how many times he sees this sight, as she emerges from the shower; "Gravity takes its toll on every woman, and they won't be this nice forever."

#47 – Highway

"Whoa, hold on; you mean, you'd actually try it?" Rick asks incredulously, not _quite _willing to get his hopes up yet that his crazy idea about renting a big van and driving around the country for a couple weeks has captured his wife's interest, too.

#48 – Unknown

"I don't trust it," Karen declares with a tone of finality, sliding the glass bottle full of a mysterious reddish-purple liquid back onto the pantry shelf, and rolling her eyes as Rick shrugs, retrieves and opens the bottle, and downs half the contents in a few gulps.

#49 – Lock

Ann learned, the hard way, that even the middle of the afternoon doesn't make it safe to burst into Karen and Rick's bedroom unannounced; Karen and Rick learned, the hard way, to invest in a door lock.

#50 – Breathe

The doctor and his pretty little nurse exchange worried glances when, several seconds after the revelation that Sasha and Lillia have finally gotten their way and a little grandbaby is coming, Karen and Rick are still staring, stunned, and they don't seem to be breathing.

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End Notes: Hee! I've wanted to write something about Karen and Rick for a while now. And, as usual, 1sentence turns out to be the answer. 3


	8. DoctorElli Gamma theme set

Doctor/Elli Gamma theme set

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#01 – Ring

His very first impression of her is a solemn, wide-eyed little girl of four, thanking Dr. Trent's aloof fifteen-year old grandson from the mysterious, faraway land known to her only as The City, very primly for the lovely present, a plastic ring with a gigantic gem-shaped candy; and although at the time, he was irritated by the little brown-eyed shadow he somehow adopted for his entire visit, he's always looked back fondly on that week.

#02 – Hero

She, of course, has little memory of it, only has her grandmother's stories and fond laughter to go by, but when she meets him again, history repeats itself, and she readopts an old hero.

#03 – Memory

He knows as soon as he's said it, that a remark to a seventeen-year old girl he last saw when she was four that _you've grown so much_ is idiotic, but it was a shock, being confronted with a sweet, lovely young woman with a welcoming smile and beautiful eyes where he had been expecting a shy little girl with a sticky mouth from strawberry jam and candy.

#04 – Box

It was a pretty pitiful sight, the two of them trying to lift all those heavy boxes to get him moved into the Clinic; but it did give them the very first thing they would ever laugh over together.

#05 – Run

Duke and Manna shake their heads and exchange knowing little smiles when a little brown-and-blue streak comes pelting down the road, shouting pleadingly at them _don't close up yet_, because she wants to buy the new doctor a bottle of wine to relax after a hard day of _moving in_.

#06 – Hurricane

"There's no way I'm letting you leave in this weather," he tells her quietly, and he knows it was the right thing to do, but it doesn't stop him from spending an agonizing night thinking about the girl on the other side of the wall, beautiful and vulnerable in sleep, clad only in one of his dress shirts.

#07 – Wings

It was the day that he took the tiny injured baby bird from little May and put its wing in a splint, before giving the dark-haired child very specific instructions on how to look after it from now on, that she started thinking, smiling dreamily and adoringly, that _he'll be a good father someday._

#08 – Cold

It just _figures_, she thinks miserably, that the pretty, friendly, cheerful blonde who's going to be running the farm came to visit them the very same day she woke up with a terrible cold, unable to do anything but sniffle, sneeze, and sigh, so that she ended up listening wistfully at her desk as the doctor and the _new girl_ laughed together over something.

#09 – Red

"Wow," he finally manages, stunned into complete honesty by the little sleeveless sun-dress that is her attempt at reminding him that an attractive girl _does_ exist alongside a faithful nurse; "You should wear red more often."

#10 – Drink

She's been teasing him all night about the bottle of wine he's steadily emptying, so when he catches her tipping a little splash of Bailey's into a glass of milk, he smiles wickedly and prepares for a little payback.

#11 – Midnight

It's not the first time that both tutor and student have become so immersed in their studies that the striking of the clock at midnight catches them off-guard, but somehow, when she scurries away and returns in a nightgown and robe, it seems like something very significant has just changed.

#12 – Temptation

And when he glances over at her as the clock strikes one, to find her cuddling her textbook and dozing peacefully away, it's harder than it should be to leave immediately after he's carried her to her own bed and pulled the covers up over her.

#13 – View

"So, what are we looking for today: berries, herbs, or leaves?" she asks eagerly, skipping along next to him the first time he takes her for one of his rambles in the mountains, and blinks in surprise when he smiles and replies, "The view."

#14 – Music

She needs to practice her flute for the Music Festival, of course, which means that he's heard her play that song about two dozen times in the last three days; but somehow, when he finds her singing it, sweetly and gently and quietly, as she brushes her hair, he feels like he doesn't mind hearing it again.

#15 – Silk

"_I_ thought they were really _nice_," she tells her grandmother, much wounded, when a present of beautiful deep green silk boxers receives a less than enthusiastic reaction from him – he barely even _thanked_ her before turning red and running away – and Ellen turns red, too, with suppressed laughter.

#16 – Cover

"This hardly covers enough to be decent!" Elli exclaims, scandalized, looking at her own shape in the mirror, clad in a decidedly brief little yellow two-piece bathing suit intended to catch her boss's attention, and both Popuri and Karen grin and tell her _that that's the point, El._

#17 – Promise

"Please know that you can always trust me; I will never try to take things farther than you're ready for," he tells her quietly, smoothing down her skirt and pulling the zip back up, even though his voice is a little rough with desire and she can feel something pressing into her hip.

#18 – Dream

Sometimes she's a little afraid that he might hear her if she starts talking in her sleep – especially if she's having one of _those_ dreams.

#19 – Candle

"You have no sense of _atmosphere_," she tells him sadly when he finds her reading by the light of a candle and scolds her that she's going to destroy her eyes that way.

#20 – Talent

From the day she found out that he won an award for being the best ukulele player in his third-grade music class, she's been teasing him about it, asking with big, solemn eyes if she can wear a coconut bra and a hula skirt to work now.

#21 – Silence

And when _he_ found out that she was the first one disqualified in a Sitting Still and Being Quiet contest in kindergarten, he didn't even have to say anything to make her blush and hide behind the snuggly quilt he draped around her when he found her shivering.

#22 – Journey

Despite her greatest efforts to remain calm and sophisticated throughout the plane ride, he could tell easily that she had probably never been farther from home than Flowerbud City before, when she squealed like an excited child on take-off.

#23 – Fire

"Alright, but if we all die painfully in a fire, my ghost will blame yours," the doctor said in the tone of one washing his hands of it, when she announced cheerfully that Karen was coming over to help her make a big batch of toffee tonight.

#24 – Strength

He thinks, with a nod of satisfaction, that after carrying her upstairs and throwing her down on the bed, she'll stop teasing him about being a weakling; to his chagrin, it has the opposite effect.

#25 – Mask

"I have to be honest, Elli," he tells her very solemnly, choking back a laugh with much difficulty, as she whirls into the room to model her costume for Popuri's party; "You're a little too _cute_ to be the Phantom of the Opera."

#26 – Ice

She thought it was kind of strange that, when he looked at her intently and intensely, and slowly stammered out the question he's been waiting to ask and she's been waiting to hear, that her cheeks were blushing hotly, but her hands were like ice.

#27 – Fall

It's not the best moment for either of them, when she gives a horrified shriek just as the window ledge gives way beneath his foot, and it seems to take him such a long time to hit the ground, but it seems even longer before he sits up and announces thoughtfully that he thinks he might have Gotz to fix the shingles next time.

#28 – Forgotten

He's a brilliant doctor, but as she discovers during the weeks it takes a broken ankle and a badly sprained arm to heal to her satisfaction, he's completely forgotten how to be an agreeable patient, and by the end of the _first_ week, she has to stop herself from throwing something at him.

#29 – Dance

He feels terrible about the grief he's given her when she was only trying to help, so at Gray and Mary's wedding, he asks her to dance and keeps her on the floor long after his ankle has begun to ache.

#30 – Body

There are very few things in the world that can compare to waking up on a Wednesday morning while he's still asleep, feeling his arm draped over her waist, his breath stirring her hair, his skin warm and soft as a woman's against hers.

#31 – Sacred

When Carter finds Tim bending over his wife, sound asleep at her desk, brushing one hand gentle and almost reverent over her hair, eyes and smile full of wonder because it sometimes still seems too good to be true that she's _his_, he reflects once again that such love is as sacred as anything found in a church.

#32 – Farewells

This is the only time she's been even a little glad to say goodbye when he left for one of his conferences, and that's only because he's promised to bring her back a kitten.

#33 – World

When he comes back, after a week, they all snuggle together in a chair, Elli in Tim's lap and a purring little golden-brown creature named Jinx in Elli's lap, and he announces that the next time he gets called away for a conference, he's having Dr. Hardy to mind the Clinic for a month and taking her with him, because he wants her to be able to travel.

#34 – Formal

When she exclaims in delight over the beautiful cream and gold gown he's brought her from town for a formal dinner party tonight, before skipping dizzily around the room and humming an old-fashioned waltz, he hides a smile and admits to himself that his Elli will never be the most _sophisticated_ woman in the world.

#35 – Fever

But much later, when their host's two-year old son creeps downstairs, flushed and miserable and she hurries upstairs to help, the little boy's mommy comes downstairs and tells him in an awed whisper, _that little angel of yours just got Geordie to take his medicine and go back to sleep with no trouble_, he thinks with an even bigger smile that there are more important things than sophistication.

#36 – Laugh

When he finds her collapsed on the floor, laughing hysterically at Jinx's antics, tangled up in a bolt of fabric she's using for a new work dress, he makes a point to bring home a puppy next time, too.

#37 – Lies

He just can't equate in his own mind the idea of a _good marriage_ with going off the deep end every time she spends too long speaking to another man, so he smiles comfortingly and tells her _don't be silly_ when she asks anxiously if he's angry that she stayed to lunch with Claire and her brother from the city.

#38 – Forever

It's the first time he's seen his brother since he's been married, which might explain why Scott Cuthbert arrived in Mineral Town to offer condolences at the loss of _poor little Timmy's freedom_, and ended up stunned at his baby-brother's enthusiastic near-gushing on how wonderfully comforting it is to know that he'll wake up next to the same girl, that admittedly cute little brunette, every morning for the rest of his life.

#39 – Overwhelmed

When she finds a little note tucked into her apron pocket somewhere between Grandma's house and the Supermarket, she thinks, turning bright red and breathless at the contents, that he just may have gotten better at this than she can handle.

#40 – Whisper

But then, she's been expecting a retaliation ever since she bid him goodbye this morning, breathing into his ear in a spicy little whisper all the fun things they can do when she gets back.

#41 – Wait

It seems like they've waited forever for this, the rapture of knowing that their little family is going to expand soon, but now that it's happening, the nearly reverent brush of his hand and his lips over her still-flat tummy, it was worth every second.

#42 – Talk

And that night, she jumps him, as usual, the second he climbs into bed, but the best part is afterwards, when they stay awake long into the night, talking over possible names, and how they'll decorate the nursery, and the best way to invest the bit of money they've already saved for education.

#43 – Search

"Keep looking, you two; it's around here somewhere," Ellen insists when Elli suggests timidly that they just buy a new cradle for their baby, instead of hunting up the one _she_ was rocked in by Mom; Tim, oddly charmed with this sentimental bit of traditionalism, happily spends the afternoon lifting heavy boxes and searching a dusty basement.

#44 – Hope

She thought that she would get cranky and depressed when she began to _really_ show, but instead, her hopes for the baby grow steadily as her middle does, and she gets to the point of being proud of her pregnant shape – and not only because Tim can't keep his hands off her!

#45 – Eclipse

But apparently, that just means that she's better with body-image problems than physical pain, because hope and love of her husband and child are certainly not eclipsing weariness and the desperate need for painkillers, no matter what silly hippie thing she said before about a _natural birth_ – aren't drugs made from things in nature anyway?

#46 – Gravity

Little Noah's first experience with gravity occurs at the hands of his Uncle Stu, and it somehow strikes Elli as very funny that Noah's _daddy_ becomes more hysterical when he hears a thud and then a wail than his _mommy_ – but then, she's had enough experience with children to know just how resilient they are, while Tim just knows all the things that can go wrong with the human body and doesn't believe in miracles.

#47 – Highway

"You're going to find Stu?" Tim asks knowingly when a very distracted Elli glances continuously through the nursery window to the highway leading out of town, and finally carefully settles the tiny infant, by now peacefully sleeping, into his arms; "Tell him I'm not angry with him either, alright?"

#48 – Unknown

She did as he asked, found her little brother and cuddled and reassured that no one was mad at him until those big dark eyes began to sparkle again despite tearstains, but she was still glad when Tim made a point to take the boy aside and remind him that looking after a baby full-time was new both of the household's menfolk, they were bound to make mistakes, and Uncle Stu was still the first one to get a smile out of Noah.

#49 – Lock

She feels a little silly, having to stop three times during Noah's first haircut because her eyes are too blurred with sentimental tears to see properly, until she catches Tim gathering up a little lock of silken-soft dark brown hair and taping it carefully into the baby book, his own eyes looking a little wet.

#50 – Breathe

He thinks he could happily die this way, her legs tangled with his, arms around his neck, moving slowly and seductively or quickly and frantically against him, face flushed and eyes glittering with need; and it just might happen someday, because when she cries out his name like that, he feels like he's temporarily forgotten how to breathe.

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	9. StuMay Alpha theme set

Stu/May Alpha theme set

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#1 – Comfort

Stu agreed solemnly when Elli told him that the word _hate_ should never be used lightly, but when he spends the afternoon sitting with May and holding her hand because her Mama isn't coming to visit this summer either, he thinks that he'd like to use it now.

#02 – Kiss

May suspects that Stu would be horrified if he knew she thought it was _so sweet_, when the Doctor caught Miss Elli around the waist and kissed her good-morning, so she pretended to be disgusted too.

#03 – Soft

When he trips and skins his knee badly on those rocks by the Hot Spring, May orders him back to the Yodel Ranch and cleans and bandages the cut with the a gentleness that elevates her to the ranks of Grandma and Elli as the people he seeks out when he's hurt.

#04 – Pain

He doesn't ask about their parents often, because whenever he does Elli looks like she wants to cry, but she says that Mom was very beautiful, with amazing long dark hair, so Stu likes to imagine that she looked a little like May.

#05 – Potatoes

At first, May was a little hurt when Stu presented her with a well-worn plushie Potato Friend for her birthday; but when she finds out that it's been his favourite toy for years, she feels like she just got a great big hug, and she thanks him again and again until he turns bright red and sulky with embarrassment.

#06 – Rain

It was kind of hard to run and hold his coat over May's head at the same time when they got caught in a summer storm, but it was worth it, because even though his hair and clothes were drenched, May's only got a bit damp.

#07 – Chocolate

And when they got home to Grandma's house, Elli's horrified exclamation turned to misty-eyed pride and a big hug and fluffy towel for her _little gentleman_, and Stu got extra marshmallows in his hot cocoa instead of a scolding for taking his coat off in the rain.

#08 – Happiness

May comes to the Church one day, almost _shining_, because her Mama is coming home to visit for-sure-for-sure this time; and Stu doesn't remind her that she _always_ says that and never comes, because he hardly ever gets to see May this happy.

#09 – Telephone

When the call comes in the next day for Barley that Joanna _isn't_ coming after all, Stu tries his hardest to cheer up a softly sniffling May, but when candy and stuffed animals and even the kittens living in Jack's barn fail, he gives up and just holds her hand again.

#10 – Ears

They haven't absorbed a word of his stern lecture about playing up on Goddess Peak, so when Stu and May gasp in simultaneous delighted horror that _Mr. Gotz swore_, the gruff woodsman can't help but chuckle at the selective hearing of children.

#11 – Name

"I think I was named after my Mama's favourite month," May tells him dreamily one day, and Stu decides not to voice his rejoining theory that _he_ was named after his father's favourite dish.

#12 – Sensual

Stu can't understand why May looks so happy and drowsy when Elli brushes and braids her hair, because whenever his big sister takes a comb to _his_ hair, he ends up yowling in pain.

#13 – Death

Ever since they turned ten and became really _grown-up_ at last, they've been solemnly aware that neither his grandma nor her grandpa are going to be around forever, and they've made a pact that they'll take care of each other when that happens.

#14 – Sex

When two curious little pairs of eyes catch them under the dock, Kai and Popuri agree, bright red and giggling, that it's a good thing none of the kids in this town watch much TV, so it was easy to make up some excuse about looking for Popuri's necklace.

#15 – Touch

Lately, he hasn't wanted to sit too close to her, and pulls away when she tries to cuddle up while Ellen or Carter or Barley reads them a story; Elli assures her comfortingly it's _just a phase_, but she would still like to say some not-so-nice things to Duke for teasing Stu about his _girlfriend_.

#16 – Weakness

They've had more than one bitter feud in Jack's barn, because she loves to hold and snuggle and sing to the kitties that always seem to abound, but whenever he sees a cat perched on the shipping box, ostentatiously washing its face, the urge to pick up the nearest stone and see how close he can get without hitting it is almost irresistible.

#17 – Tears

May thinks that something about it isn't quite fair, that she has to coax and coax before the near-wild barn cats will come play with her, but when she stumbles and twists her ankle, they let Stu scoop them up with no problem to keep her company and dry her tears on warm silkensoft fur while he runs to find Jack.

#18 – Speed

And it's a good thing that he left the kittens, because he's trying so hard to hurry through Mother's Hill for Gotz after Jack proves nowhere to be found, that he trips over a root and twists his ankle too, and it's a while before the bearded woodsman hears his shouts and arrives at the Clinic with a child under each arm.

#19 – Wind

"Make sure you comb your hair again when you get there; it's windy today, and I _know_ you want to look nice for May," Elli calls teasingly as he sets off for a birthday celebration at Yodel Ranch, and as soon as she disappears inside, Stu sticks out his tongue at the closed door and musses it up even more.

#20 – Freedom

Stu can't wait until he's a _grown-up_, and he can do whatever he wants; May can never agree _quite_ enough to suit him, because it sounds a little scary to her, taking care of yourself, with no one to help you.

#21 – Life

The last time there was a litter of kittens at the farm, it took May a while to warm to the squirmy, hairless little creatures, because she expected them to be fuzzy and pretty right away; but there's a big difference between being _seven_ and being _ten_, and now she adores the babies right away, and coddles the poor exhausted mother, and glares at Stu when he says something about _more target practice_.

#22 – Jealousy

Just now, Stu doesn't like doctors very much, because May is right in the middle of a schoolgirl crush on his brother-in-law, and he thinks resentfully that it wasn't enough that the _jerk_ had to steal his big sister, now he has to steal May too.

#23 – Hands

But sometimes turnabout is fair play, even at twelve, and it isn't long before May gives a tiny, sad little sigh as Stu blushes bright red at Popuri's slim, pretty hands rubbing sunscreen over his neck and cheeks before an outing to the beach.

#24 – Taste

"You taste like peanut butter," she giggles as they move apart, both flushed and nervous and exhilarated.

#25 – Devotion

It kind of rubs him the wrong way when he hears someone suggest that it's because they're the only two children in town, poor things, that they're so close; as if _anyone_ wouldn't like May best no matter _how_ many kids there were to play with!

#26 – Forever

Recently, they've become more aware that her Grandpa and his Grandma won't be around forever, so it's become something of an agreement between them to help out as much as they can, and make the time they do have with them as wonderful as they can.

#27 – Blood

When May falls out of a tree and ends up with a gash in her forehead, Stu rushes her to the Clinic and looks so terrified while Elli wipes away the blood and dabs on some disinfectant, that she has to take him out while the Doctor stitches up the little dark-haired girl.

#28 – Sickness

May responds very politely when Ellen sends her away because Stu is too ill for visitors right now, because she wants him to get better more than anything, but she was still looking _really_ forward to going to see him today after _she_ finally got better from falling out of a tree, and can't quite stop a lonely little teardrop from rolling down her nose.

#29 – Melody

"Could you sing to me like May does?" Stu asked, whimsically and a little weakly as Elli pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead, damp with fever, and tucked the blankets around him, and she laughed: "I think you'd have nightmares if _I _sang to you, sweetie."

#30 – Star

Everyone is bound and determined to be famous when they're thirteen, and Stu and May are no exception: she's going to be a famous singer, like Karen should be except she hates attention and crowds and fancy parties, and he's going to invent something amazing, even if he hasn't decided _what_ yet.

#31 – Home

He would never _ask_ her for a promise like that, because he knows how much she misses her mother, but he still couldn't stop smiling after May swore solemnly that even if Mama came back to take her away to the city, she would stay in Mineral Town with Grandpa...and with him.

#32 – Confusion

It started as a squabble between the children, May lividly angry because Stu gave Popuri a bouquet of flowers and then tried to take them back when he noticed his _more-than-best-friend_ looking sad, but now it's extended to the grown-ups, and as Karen and Elli and May spend a joyous hour lambasting men, Rick and the doctor and Stu shake their heads at these bewildering womenfolk.

#33 – Fear

Ever since he found out what _that day of the month_ means, and why it's probably safer to leave her alone during it, he's been a little afraid of her.

#34 – Thunder/Lightning

When they got stranded on the shore by a terrible thunderstorm, they made a mad dash for Kai's Seaside Shack, even though Zack's house was closer, because they _like_ Zack, but Kai makes _such_ good snacks, and there's no Won there to tease May.

#35 – Bonds

It sure wasn't funny at the time, and she cried all night because she felt terrible for it, but now that she looks back on the day she tied Stu up in the caves during a game of Kidnapper when they were seven, then left for a few minutes to let him _struggle_ and forgot to come back, she's able to laugh about it with him.

#36 – Market

He doesn't think Won was _actually_ going to let May spend five-hundred gold on a stupid apple, anymore than he thinks she actually _would_, but he's still glad he got there in time to pull the transaction to a halt.

#37 – Technology

After a week of constant pestering, May has Stu almost convinced that he _doesn't_ want that game system he asked for as a birthday gift, because she keeps hearing stories about kids who get them and never go outside again, and how does he expect to beat Kai in the swimming competition if he doesn't train?

#38 – Gift

And so, when Elli presents him with a big, brightly wrapped box, and informs him sternly as he exclaims in slightly guilty delight, that there are going to be very definite rules about how much time he's allowed to play each day, he agrees so gladly that Elli checks him for fever.

#39 – Smile

A lot of the things that Kai says to Popuri sound a lot like poetry, but Stu doesn't really like poetry, so he's trying to find another way to tell May that her smile is really pretty, without so many _words_.

#40 – Innocence

When Elli hurries into the living room, drawn by the crash of a pretty crystal vase hitting the floor, Stu blurts out that it was him that DDR'ed right into the side table; but only half an hour later sees May sneaking away from Stu and slinking into the kitchen to tell the truth.

#41 – Completion

But Elli knows that protecting his friend is important to her little brother, so they don't tell him until after the children are finished painting the backyard fence, Stu to earn enough to pay for the vase and May over bright and early to help because _she's sweet that way_, that the grown-ups know what really happened.

#42 – Clouds

"You say they all look like kittens," he scoffs gently at the pretty dark-haired girl stretched out in the grass next to him, and she pouts and reminds him that _he_ just says they all look like _clouds_, which is kind of missing the point.

#43 – Sky

"I think you'll be on your own," she admits when he tells her that he wants to take her on a plane ride someday, because she doesn't like heights; and he fixes her with big, sad eyes: "Even if I fill the plane with kittens first?"

#44 – Heaven

She likes to ponder what Heaven might be like, but usually it just freaks him out and keeps him up reading comic books all night because he's scared to go to sleep.

#45 – Hell

"You know, Stu, when you tell _everything_ to go to Hell, it loses its impact."

#46 – Sun

"It's not that funny," he huffs as she takes in his bright red sunburned face, with those stark white patches around his eyes where his sunglasses were when he fell asleep on the beach.

#47 – Moon

Grandpa didn't want her going to the Full Moon Festival yet this year, because _he_ didn't take her grandmother until they were _sixteen_ and that's three more years, but she still had a good time this evening, eating cookies and drinking punch with Stu and Ellen, and waiting until they saw Elli and the doctor walk past in the darkened street, so they could laugh and cheer and catcall at them through the window.

#48 – Waves

May's favourite part of their trip to the beach was sitting at the dock, letting the icy cold waves wash over their toes until it felt warm; Stu's favourite part was when May stood up and a gust of wind blew her skirt up around her waist.

#49 – Hair

She isn't quite sure why Stu is so upset when she talks about cutting her hair really short, but she thinks it's something like the same reason that she hates the idea of him marring his pretty, smooth skin with the tattoos he always talks about getting.

#50 – Supernova

He didn't expect her to be _all_ that interested in the telescope an uncle sent for his birthday this year, so it was a pleasant surprise when she eagerly agreed to join him on Goddess Peak to try it out; and fourteen is a long way from grown up, so he was practically _required_ to glare when Elli suggested mildly that it's not the _stars_ May is really interested in.

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	10. AnnCliff Delta theme set

Ann/Cliff – Delta theme set

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#01 – Air

"She just kept talking and talking; I don't think she stopped for breath the whole way home," Cliff confides to Carter, who hides a smile and keeps to himself his observation that the scruffy young man sounds more_ awed_ than _annoyed_.

#02 – Apples

"I guess it's not bad, but they're never as good with canned fruit," she laughs, bright red as Cliff's eyes light up at the first whiff of warm pastry and cinnamon; "Stick around until autumn, and you'll see what a _real _apple pie tastes like."

#03 – Beginning

He doesn't talk a lot, but he listens, and watches, so he knows when it's time to step in and give Ann a hand with some of the customers, because she always gets the beginnings of a cold when she's too run-down.

#04 – Bugs

Ann's always thought, away at the back of her mind where she's not too busy with more _important_ things, that it's kind of unfair, the way bugs get hit with swatters and newspapers just for taking a wrong turn, so when Cliff picked up a glass and a piece of cardboard instead and carried the wasp back outside, she gave him an extra-big piece of cake _just because_.

#05 – Coffee

It's kind of funny that they both love the taste of strong black coffee, but neither of them can drink it much, because the caffiene puts Ann right to sleep and gives Cliff the same feeling of one too many beers.

#06 – Dark

He loves listening to her talk, but it wasn't until the evening they passed in the kitchen by the light of a pile of candles while Doug and Duke tried to figure out of the fuse box, that he found himself talking too.

#07 – Despair

"Stubborn doofus," she half-muttered, half-sighed, giving up in despair the fifth time the money Dad sent her to sneak into Cliff's dwindling savings ended up on her dresser the next morning.

#08 – Doors

He only holds doors for her because Mom always taught him to be polite to girls, and she only lets him do it because Dad always taught her to be polite to gentlemen, but Doug thinks with a grin that they sure are smiling a lot over an _obligation_.

#09 – Drink

It was the first time she's ever been _that_ drunk, so she doesn't know what she said to make him so distant around her; it was the first time in years _he's_ been that drunk, so he's kind of afraid to talk to her right now, because he has no idea what he did to make her so tense around him.

#10 – Duty

Something about Ann and how she can go from laughing to pouting to ranting and back again within ten minutes makes him feel like he's found his little sister again, and even though he wants to laugh when he's with her, the memory of coming home to find Saidah gone, and how badly he failed to look after her, makes him feel sick sometimes.

#11 – Earth

He's so cute when he's lost in thought, that furrow of concentration in his brow, that she almost regrets sneaking up behind him and booming in his ear, "EARTH TO CLIFF; THIS IS PLANET EARTH, PAGING CLIFF."

#12 – End

With the end of Summer comes the end of some other things: the end of his finances, and when he thinks about leaving Mineral Town and maybe never coming back and never getting to try that apple pie Ann promised him in Spring, it feels like the end of the world.

#13 – Fall

But Fall brings something else; not right away, but by the third week, he's working full-time at Aja Winery, and Ann is marveling at the change in him and walking around with a perma-grin to see him so happy.

#14 – Fire

_Get a grip, man_, he chides himself, shoving Ann's sunbeam smile and sparkling eyes from his mind; _Duke's gonna fire you if you don't get it in gear!_

#15 – Flexible

Maybe he's getting a little ahead of himself, but Doug thinks it's a good thing that Cliff is so adaptable, because Ann makes a point to make it well known that she _doesn't do compromise_.

#16 – Flying

She could have killed Elli for it at the time, hanging that mistletoe above Cliff's cot just before she showed up at the Clinic to visit, but whenever she thinks about the feeling of his hands at her cheeks and his breath mingling softly with hers, she gets the weirdest feeling that she's flying.

#17 – Food

So when she came back again the next day with the bag of treats she'd promised him, only to discover that the mistletoe was still there, she decided to spare Elli's life and even gave her some of the cookies.

#18 – Foot

"Well, _that_ was dumb," she huffed when she found out that Cliff broke his foot dropping one of the wine barrels on it after he _just_ got well enough to go back to work, but she still spends the season waiting tirelessly on him while he's laid up.

#19 – Grave

Ann, who spent the morning trying not to give into the lump in her throat when Dad started off to Goddess Peak with that lonely, longing look in his eyes to honour Mom's memory, burst promptly into tears when Cliff showed up at noon and announced that he'd taken the rest of the day off just in case she didn't want to be alone.

#20 – Green

He kind of likes Mineral Town best in the Winter, still and peaceful and blanketed in white, but he knows that Ann can't wait for Spring, so he can't feel too sorry to see the show melt and the grass and trees turn vibrantly green again.

#21 – Head

"Of course I'm not going to change my mind," she retorts when he asks, one more time, just to make _really really sure_ they're going to the Goddess Festival together; "I never change my mind; Dad says my skull is about two inches thicker than most people's."

#22 – Hollow

At first, he thought of getting a hollowed out cake and hiding a necklace or a bracelet or some earrings inside, but Karen tipped him off that Ann would probably rather just have the whole cake.

#23 – Honour

When it occurs to her that she never did make him an apple pie last Fall with fresh apples, she heads straight over to Zack's to get some shipped in, because she's as stubborn about keeping her promises as everything else.

#24 – Hope

It's a lot easier to be optimistic about the future, now that he's pretty sure he's going to be spending it in Mineral Town; and even though Ann isn't the _only_ reason he's in love with life right now, she's the most important one.

#25 – Light

She thought it was adorable, when she found out that he slept with his light on until he was fourteen, so he doesn't bother mentioning that it was because he forgot to turn it off.

#26 – Lost

It was just good timing that they went hiking and came back famished the same day that Doug was feeling grumpy and unappreciated over losing the Cooking Festival to Lillia yesterday, but he's smiling so broadly to see his daughter and Cliff enjoying his cooking with such gusto, that they decide not to mention the hike.

#27 – Metal

"You should try to be more careful," he chides gently, his customary timidity unimportant beside the matter of her wellbeing, as he helps her salve and bandage the wicked burn she got by reaching across the stove and bumping against the smoking hot handle of a metal pot.

#28 – New

He doesn't mind lending an ear sometimes when she's mad about something; like today, when Doug threw out her favourite old cotton ribbon, soft and comfy and almost taking the shade of her hair after years of wearing it every day, and gave her a new one, all pink silk and lace, and she spent almost an hour on about how it _smelled funny_ and _itched her neck_.

#29 – Old

The battle between father and daughter raged long into the night, whether or not Ann would get a new dress for Starry Night this year; but when she comes skipping down the stairs in her own comfy old overalls and Cliff's eyes light up, she's glad she stuck to her guns and nixed the froofery.

#30 – Peace

He spent most of the evening at the Church because he likes being alone with his thoughts sometimes, but when he slips back into the Inn to find Ann ranting loudly about something, he reflects with a grin that peace and quiet is overrated, anyway.

#31 – Poison

When she finds him at the Cooking Festival, choking and sputtering and grimacing around a mouthful of a dish that isn't hers or Dad's, she blushes in spite of herself and tells him to _quit sucking up_; then, as she notices the telltale signs of a Karen Special, she runs for Elli instead, hoping that the doctor has got around to showing his nurse the right way to pump a guy's stomach.

#32 – Pretty

After a few drinks too many tonight, she threw her arms affectionately around him and thanked him beamingly for being _her_ boyfriend instead of going after one of the _pretty_ girls, like Popuri or Karen; this leaves him totally bewildered, because from where he's standing, she's got them both beat by a mile.

#33 – Rain

When they returned from a long walk in the rain, Elli and Karen and her, it was to the half-stern, half-frantic lectures of a doctor and a chicken-farmer; she expected a part-time winery worker to join in the scolding, but ended up blushing furiously instead when his eyes landed, and stayed, on the way her clothes clung wetly to her skin.

#34 – Regret

Every night this that he's gone to spend some time with Ann, Kai has called teasingly after him, "Don't do something you'll regret in the morning", and tonight Cliff finally takes the guy's advice, and gives her the feather he's been hiding under his bed for two seasons now, so he won't have to bemoan his own cowardice tomorrow.

#35 – Roses

Popuri wants Ann to carry yellow roses for the wedding, because they'll look the nicest with her hair; Mary and Elli want Ann to carry red roses for the wedding, because they have the right _meaning_; Ann just wants to _pick_ something already, so they can get back to the _important_ issues – like the wedding supper.

#36 – Secret

He doesn't know why she works so hard to keep Doug's recipes a _jealously guarded secret_ from him; he wouldn't have the first clue what to do with a recipe.

#37 – Snakes

"I'm _not_ afraid of snakes," she huffs, hurrying ahead of him and glaring back at him over her shoulder as he tries to hide a smile; "It just startled me, coming out of nowhere like that!"

#38 – Snow

Popuri and Karen shake their heads when they happen upon Ann and Cliff in the middle of a heated argument (even if Ann seems to be doing most of the _arguing_) over who would win a snowball fight – and not only because it's summer.

#39 – Solid

"Didn't the doctor tell you to stay off solid foods in the mornings?" he reminds her timidly, shrinking back when a glowering visage raises its head slowly from the waste basket; and even though he knows he should push the issue and insist that she stick to porridge and tea for breakfast from now on, he's too busy reflecting comfortably that she'll be a good mom, because she's already got the Angry Eye down cold.

#40 – Spring

She was really hoping that the little rugrat would come early and be a Spring baby, because all three of them having their birthdays in Summer, a week apart, makes it really hard to justify having more than one party; Cliff starts to ask when she's ever needed _justification _to throw a party, but thinks better of it when he remembers the clean-up from the last one.

#41 – Stable

Between his occasional moodiness and her frequent bursts of temper, it's hard to say which of them is the _stable_ one, so Doug laughingly takes that role on himself.

#42 – Strange

"This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen," Cliff mutters to his father-in-law and the doctor as the three men watch Ann, in the midst of labour, and Elli, at the end of her rope with the most stunningly and violently uncooperative patient she's ever had, launch into an all-out insult war.

#43 – Summer

"It's too _hot _for that," she grumbles when he brushes a kiss against the back of her neck, so he grins, calls to a delighted Doug to look after the tiny boy in the cradle, and bodily carries his wife down to the cellar of the Winery.

#44 – Taboo

"I know mothers aren't supposed to _seriously_ consider duct tape a viable substitute for real parenting, but God, how much can one kid cry?" Ann sighs, near tears of her own, as little Wade bursts into glorious noise once more.

#45 – Ugly

"He kinda looks like a little monkey, doesn't he?" Cliff asks one day while they're both leaned over the cradle watching Wade sleep; Ann nods thoughtfully: "I think he gets it from you."

#46 – War

And after that, they discovered the contrary nature of babies, because Wade, who will wake and howl with the slightest sound in the middle of the night, sleeps peacefully away through his parents' pillow-fight ten feet away.

#47 – Water

"Cliff, you're supposed to be watching in case someone comes!" Ann reminds him when she looks up to find his eyes fixed on her and slightly glazed, as she splashes around in the Hot Spa in the mountains.

#48 – Welcome

With a town full of baby-crazy girls less than five minutes away, sometimes it's really tempting to welcome Popuri's and Elli's hopeful offers to _look after Wade any time you guys want a quiet evening alone_, but they somehow think that they'll regret it when their son is older, so they try not to do it too often.

#49 – Winter

"He likes Winter as much as his mom, huh?" Cliff grins when Ann holds Wade up to the window to see the soft, feathery snowflakes drifting down from the sky, and the tiny infant immediately lets loose a wail.

#50 – Wood

Doug doesn't quite understand why Ann and Cliff are so adamant about building Wade's treehouse themselves instead of just hiring Gotz to do it, but at least they know their own limits, if they're starting when he's _one_ to have it done by the time he's _five_.

_-----------------------------------------------------------_

End Notes: Sigh...so, how obvious was it that I still have no grasp on these two:)

Oh, well. At least they have a firm grasp on each other.


	11. GotzElli Epsilon theme set

Elli/Gotz – Epsilon Theme

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#01 – Motion

She begged off a tutoring session with the doctor this afternoon for a brisk walk in the mountains, so something tells her that he wouldn't be terribly happy if he could see her now, standing motionless, staring in fascination at the way the woodsman's muscles ripple beneath tanned, sweat-slick skin with each strike of his axe.

#02 – Cool

When he catches her watching him, she tries to be sophisticated and calm, but she ends up stammering like a nervous child until he assumes that she's lost and marches her back into town against her will.

#03 – Young

_Women_, the doctor thinks helplessly when Elli, newly twenty and sweet-natured usually, storms back into the Clinic, furious with all men because Mr. Gotz implied that she was a little girl.

#04 – Last

Nevertheless, that same_ Mr. Gotz_ finds a brightly wrapped little box of homemade _thank-you candies _on his doorstep the next morning, and forces himself to only have one a day so they'll last until the next time the doctor's pretty little doll of a nurse gets herself lost in the mountains.

#05 – Wrong

He's still fighting off the effects of last night's dreams, the images dancing behind his eyes of of smooth pale skin under his hands, sweet pale pink lips parted in a breathless moan and captured by his own, silky brown hair brushing his naked shoulders; so when he finds out that she just turned twenty this Spring, he mutters a string of curses and tells Jeff flatly that he must be mistaken.

#06 – Gentle

She didn't know his daughter very well, and could never imagine him as a father, until the day she fell and cut her forehead on the sharp edge of a thick wooden plank, and he wiped the blood away so gently that she cuddled up and fell asleep on him after.

#07 – One

"I've already got one of you girls showing up to pester me all the time," Gotz, who loves Karen like a bratty kid sister and laughed more this afternoon than he has for months, grumbles good-naturedly when Elli asks if she can come visit again.

#08 – Thousand

She hid it behind a smile almost instantly, but he still saw the panicked despair when he told her how much the repairs to the Clinic's waiting room would cost, so he knocked a couple thousand off the price just for her, on the condition that she leave a bowl of those homemade candies of hers lying around somewhere when he started work.

#09 – King

He laughed uproariously when she told him timidly that he reminds her of the king in the book Mary gave her: big and strong, and kind and benevolent, with a terrifying kingly wrath when he was crossed.

#10 – Learn

"I don't know if it's really something you can _teach_," Elli replies, forehead wrinkled in deep thought, when Gotz demands, badly shaken, who the hell taught her the death-glare that just sent Duke scurrying out of the waiting room and saved Jeff from further torment.

#11 – Blur

She's _supposed_ to be madly in love with the doctor, like Grandma always teases her, so when her last waking thought that night, blurred around the edges with sleep, is of a bearded face and broad chest and sunbrowned muscular arms, she wonders miserably if something is wrong with her.

#12 – Wait

He'd like to just grab her and shove her back into the nearest wall and to Hell with it if someone comes into the waiting room, but he can taste the inexperience in her kiss, nervous and hesitant and a little sloppy, so he steels himself and waits until her arms tighten around his neck and her lips part willingly on his.

#13 – Change

It's a little surprising, when he dreams that night of Deanna, all tawny-brown hair and bright blue eyes and laughing sparkling beauty, and their little daughter Sylvia, instead of the cuddly brown-eyed nurse he spent the afternoon kissing and holding, but it just goes to show, sometimes people change, but most of the time they don't.

#14 – Command

For such a polite little thing, Elli sure isn't very good at obeying orders; like when he gives her a little push and tells her to _go back home to your Grandma, little girl_, she just glares at him and leaps back into his lap until they tumble flat out on his bed and he forgets why he'll burn in Hell if he lets his hands tug roughly at her skirts.

#15 – Hold

But when he wakes up from another dream of his wife and daughter, he's glad she's a stubborn little brat, because it's nice, finding her looking down at him, eyes wide with mute sympathy, and burying his face in her hair dampened by his own tears.

#16 – Need

She's always considered herself an expert in discerning and fullfilling the needs of others, but when he grabs her roughly, hoists her over his shoulder, and drags her back to his cabin to find out why the hell she's been avoiding him since that night, she starts to wonder if she was wrong about his need for a little _time to think_.

#17 – Vision

"Well, I knew you'd never buy a pair for yourself, and it's dangerous to work without them," she huffs disapprovingly when he stares, bewildered, at the safety goggles she brought him from town, and then up at her, waiting for an explanation.

#18 – Attention

He only let her help him once, because one look at her in those skimpy little shorts and white tee-shirt she dug out of the back of her closet in favour of chopping and sanding in a long dress and apron, and his attention never did make it back to work.

#19 – Soul

"But you'll see them again someday," Elli said softly, giving his hand a gentle squeeze when she finds him in a deep depression on the anniversary of his wife and daughter's death, "and I'll see Mom and Dad and Grandpa, and we'll all have a big group hug and forget to stop."

#20 – Picture

"Because you wouldn't believe me _without_ the photos," Popuri told Rick, pouting, when he asked, half-alarmed and half-amused, why she felt the need to photograph her friend half-naked and wrapped tightly around an entirely naked village woodsman.

#21 – Fool

"You must think I'm an idiot," she moans, flushed with miserable embarrassment, when he happens upon her singing loudly and dancing crazily and gracelessly about behind his house, and he'd like to tell her that he doesn't mind, it was cute, but he's laughing too hard to form the words.

#22 – Mad

Most of the town is firmly of the opinion that Gotz must have gone suddenly and irrevocably crazy to be taking up with a _little girl_ like this, but whenever he watches her staring dreamily into space, cheeks flushed and lips curving up into a slight smile, the doctor can't help but think wistfully that he was pretty crazy himself, to not notice the woman that his little student grew into while he wasn't looking.

#23 – Child

"You know, a lot of people might call it a little creepy that you can call me _kiddo_ one second and take my clothes off the next," she points out delicately, and he laughs, rips at her skirt, and asks if his _cute little girl_ would care to join him in bed.

#24 – Now

"No, you can't," he replies firmly when she asks, bright pink and breathless and staring bewilderedly at the Blue Feather he's holding, if she can have a few days to think about it; "Yes or no, I just need an answer, alright?"

#25 – Shadow

At one time, Elli would have called living in another woman's shadow like this the worst fate in the world, but maybe she's grown up a little since she really got to know him, because now she doesn't mind that he'll always love his first wife more than her, as long as she can give him some comfort to soothe the pain of losing Deanna and Sylvia.

#26 – Goodbye

But he's not quite so good at dealing with the possibility of being second-best, so when he comes for the last of her things and finds her hugging the doctor goodbye one _more_ last time and sniffling into the front of an already teardamp labcoat, a fight fuelled by the stress and exhaustion of planning a wedding erupts right there in the Clinic.

#27 – Hide

"Don't think I won't turn you over my knee and blister your bratty little hide," he growls, heedless of the audience they're acquiring, only to feel anger turn to something else just as blazing but far more pleasant when she just glares scornfully up at him: "Threatening to beat your wife of three days, that's attractive."

#28 – Fortune

"Hey, thank Claire," he shrugs, uncomfortable but grinning as she squeals in delighted astonishment at the full extent of the renovations to his tiny mountain shack, because he promised her a full kitchen and a real bedroom, but she wasn't expecting a prettily decorated sitting room, or a bathroom with marble tile and a tub big enough for two; "Damn spendthrift kid pretty much paid for the whole thing with all the work I've been doing on that farm."

#29 – Safe

After two hours of tripping over waist-high snowdrifts and squinting through a blizzard, she's not _really _in the mood to be yelled at for her _recklessness_; but when she stumbled snow-covered and freezing through the door to see that sick, livid look of despairing panic in his eyes, she didn't even bother to protest her innocence and just snuggled up too leech some body heat.

#30 – Ghost

It seemed like a good idea at the time, telling her about all the spooks that wander Mother's Hill at night and enjoying the effects of an even cuddlier than usual little brunette hiding against him at the slightest sound, but that was before she and Mary and Karen decided to camp out and go on a _ghost hunt_.

#31 – Book

"Why don't you two put down that book, and I'll show you some of those critters first-hand?" he offered with a grunt of a laugh when he found Elli reading to Stu from one of Basil's books.

#32 – Eye

The wooden spoon to the knuckles was hardly necessary; Stu and Gotz were already in the process of slinking out of the kitchen right from the Look that Elli shot them when she caught them trying to sneak some of the beautiful citrus cream icing from Grandma's birthday cake.

#33 – Never

"Well, maybe I just needed to meet the _right_ big, hairy muscle-man," Elli giggled the first time Karen shook her head helplessly that she never took Elli for the type to go for _that_ type; "I bet _he_ never saw himself as the type to go for cute, giggly little nurses with hyperactive little brothers."

#34 – Sing

"Give me a break," Elli pouted amidst Gotz's howls of laughter at coming in to find her swinging her beer bottle back and forth and singing one of her favourite lullabies; "I don't know any drinking songs."  
#35 – Sudden

It's a _really_ good thing that she's a nurse, she thinks, heimliching doggedly away to dislodge the stray chunk of ham that he inhaled the wrong way, thanks to her poor sense of timing in admitting blushingly that they might need to tack a nursery onto the house sometime soon.

#36 – Stop

He's always liked her legs, but she's got them hidden under those long skirts most of the time; so it's no surprise that every time she wears something a little shorter, he takes great pleasure in kissing scalding trails up her calves and up over her thighs, not always remembering to stop when he reaches her pastel cotton little-girl undies.

#37 – Time

"Men," Elli sighs mournfully when Stu declares hotly that someday he's gonna be able to drink a bottle of milk faster than Gotz, and does it again when he asks her with big, sad eyes to get a stopwatch and time him.

#38 – Wash

He never thought he'd find himself taking a bath just for the hell of it, but all it took was Elli slipping out of her dress and heading slipping into that bubbly, cinnamon-scented water, to make him decide that sure, he could use a little extra cleaning.

#39 – Torn

"Elli!" he finally barks after ten minutes of watching her deliberate between two baby blankets; "It'll keep the baby warm whether it's blue with little clouds or yellow with little balloons, so just pick one, and let's go get the kid something to sleep in _with_ the blanket."

#40 – History

She spends the last month of the pregnancy drowned in wave after wave of nausea, so he helps her pass her hours of boredom and loneliness since the doctor ordered her off work, with stories about Deanna and Sylvia, little details and silly and tender moments that make them feel like close friends.

#41 – Power

"Fixing houses and barns is one thing," he tells her gruffly after she's finished tying Stu's badly cut hand up in a clean bandage and giving him a popsicle and a kiss on the nose to dry his tears, "but putting _people_ back together is a gift worth having."

#42 – Bother

"You really think we need to bug the poor guy this late at night?" Gotz asks skeptically as he finds himself dragged out the door towards the Clinic, and the little brunette wracked with labour pains gives him an incredulous look and a frantic yelp of "Yes!"

#43 – God

The last time he prayed for death this fervently, it was the night of his wife and daughter's funeral, because there was nothing left to live for; since then, he knows better, and instead he's trying to bargain with God – take his life instead of the girl lying motionless, sweat-drenched, and unnaturally pale .

#44 – Wall

"Alright, back in bed, kiddo; the doctor told you to rest and let me look after both my girls," he rumbles, looming in the doorway, and she sags in defeat despite the pitiful wails coming from inside the nursery, because she _could_ try to just bowl him over and run to little Deanna, but she suspects that she might have more luck plowing through the wall next to him.

#45 – Naked

"Um, actually, Honey, it's really just the underwear," she admits apologetically when Gotz asks hopefully, didn't she say that women who have recently given birth are supposed to roam around without any clothes on, to let everything breathe more naturally or something?

#46 – Drive

"It's never going to seem like a good time to leave Dee and go back to work," he tells her quietly when he finds her ready to ask the doctor for a few more weeks maternity leave because her baby has the sniffles and every child should get to have Mommy nearby when they're sick; "It'll just get harder the longer you wait, and I don't want to see you giving up your dreams like that."

#47 – Harm

"I'm glad to see you're finally coming for your annual check-ups," the doctor tells him briskly, and then, astonishingly, grins: "Although, I suppose it doesn't hurt that the nurse promised to kiss all the sore places better, does it?"

#48 – Precious

"Yeah, it better be nice," he grumbles, a smile twitching at his lips in spite of himself, when he returns from town with a beautiful little dress for Deanna, all pink satin and delicate white lace, and Elli squeals more even more delightedly than she did when those silly high heeled embroidered leather boots popped out of the bag; "Damn thing cost more than my suit for the wedding."

#49 – Hunger

"I can't tell if working with you full-time would help me lose weight from all the exercise, or just make me gain more," Elli sighs half-mournfully and half-contentedly, leaning back in her chair after a meal of twice as much as she usually eats when they have hamburgers.

#50 – Believe

Sometimes, she wonders wistfully how long it's going to be before he can love her as much as he loved his first wife; sometimes, he wonders, annoyed, how long it's going to be before she believes that he _does_, and has for ages now.

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End Notes: Hee! I love pairings like this. Grumpy Guy x Criminally Adorable Girl. Anyway, I hope this one worked out okay.


End file.
